High-Resolution Wide-Dynamic-Range MEMS-Based Closed-Loop Adaptive Optics System

This proposed Phase II effort continues to bridge the gap between the present state of development of MEMS deformable mirror technology and the practical implementation of this technology in high resolution, wide dynamic range applications. The high performance, low cost, and small size of these devices will be of significant value and serve as an enabling technology for a wide range of applications. The low cost high performance nature of the hardware to be developed on the proposed effort is further enhanced by the fact that the adaptive optics controller is based on PCI bus technology, off-the-shelf components and sophisticated algorithms which ensure that the cost is low and the performance is high. A key feature of this work is that the hardware to be developed will be sufficiently mature to impact proposed Air Force experiments involving ATL Aero-Optics compensation and Extended Range atmospheric compensation including multiple deformable mirrors. An additional feature of the proposed effort is its synergy with other ongoing efforts such as the DARPA CCIT program, SSA activities, lasercom, astronomy and biomedical optics.