High Bandwidth, Large Dynamic-Range Sensor for Controllable Optics

The overall goal of this project is to design, fabricate, test, and deliver a high bandwidth, large dynamic-range sensor for controllable optical elements. Active mirrors and other active optical elements are used in advanced imaging systems to improve overall performance of the imaging system. For example, optical and infrared telescopes may employ active beam-steering mirrors and segmented primary optics.Active optics will be needed for next-generation, large telescopes to achieve diffraction-limited resolution. To achieve proper active optical elements, a non-contact sensor is required that has a position measurement accuracy on the order of nanometers and it must be capable of large angular slews requiring total displacements on the order of 0.1 mm (or 100,000 nanometers). Further, the sensor must have high bandwidth capability and operate at cryogenic temperatures. These requirements necessitate the development of new metrology technologies to meet the demanding specifications.Creare's high bandwidth, large dynamic-range sensor is a non-contact position sensor that provides nanometer resolution with a dynamic range of greater than 100,000. During Phase I we will demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. During Phase II we will fabricate and deliver a prototype sensor.