Innovative Coating Design to Shape Compliant Optics into a Parabolic Net-Shape

"Triton systems, a leading developer of thin film membrane materials for space application, has teamed up with Professor Christopher Jenkins of the Compliant Structures laboratory of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) and Dr. JackBradshaw of Atkinson Thin Film Systems to address the critical design and fabrication requirements of large space-based optical telescopes. On this Phase I, Triton's team will utilize its broad experimental and theoretical expertise in membrane materialsand coatings to develop a parabolic net-shape telescope. It is well known that the coating of a substrate produces intrinsic and extrinsic stress leading to deformation of substrate. In this program, we will use this concept to shape a parabolic mirror. Wepropose to design a "tunable coating" system that leads to control the shape of membrane. A mathematical stress coating model will be developed. This stress model will provide us with prescription coating that will guide the coating material selection,polymer membrane selection, coating geometry, and device fabrication. Moreover, We will develop a new metrology to evaluate important membrane properties, in particular, the coating stress. The success of the proposed concept will provide a revolutionaryapproach to fabricate large, lightweight, space-based telescopes. Some of the benefits of stress coating technique to obtain a net-shape mirror are:¿ Reduced optical wavefront distorti