MANUFACTURABILITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, 100% BERYLLIUM EKV SENSOR

LightWorks Optics, Inc. is teamed with Raytheon, Brush Wellman and Axsys Technologies to conduct an SBIR Phase I research project on manufacturability improvements to an all-Beryllium version of the new EKV Sensor design. This study will focus on the EKV optical system redesign that incorporates a telescope intended to enhance producibility in an all beryllium configuration. There is currently a prevalent perception in the industry that Beryllium assemblies are significantly more expensive and time consuming to produce than other alternative materials. It is fact that Beryllium requires special handling and processing. However, many alternative materials also require this. Beryllium offers many performance advantages and is an excellent choice for the new EKV Sensor design. Therefore, it is our intent, as a focused team, to assure that the beryllium design is optimized for the specific manufacturing processes planned in order to minimize end-to-end cycle times and costs. This optimization process is not a well refined science, and our team intends on extending this art into a more clearly defined and usable process. The outcome of applying this process will be a cost-saving EKV redesign, as well as a documented optimization approach that can be applied to other complex MDA designs.