THE CURRENT XM21 SUFFFERS FROM AN OVER- SENSITIVITY OF THE INTERFEROMETER TO MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS.

THE CURRENT XM21 SUFFFERS FROM AN OVER- SENSITIVITY OF THE INTERFEROMETER TO MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS. SINCE THE COMMON MODULE COOLER GENERATES MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS, THIS SENSITIVITY IS UNFORTUNATE. REPAIR ATTEMPTS TO DATA HAVE FOCUSED ON TRYING TO ISOLATE THE INTERFEROMETER FROM THE COOLER VIBRATIONS, HOWEVER ISOLATION CREATES ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS. MIDAC PROPOSES TO SOLVE THE VIBRATION SENSITIVITY PROBLEM, THUS ELIMINATING THE ROOT OF SYSTEM DIFFICULTIES. THE MIDAC SILICON MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ALREADY INCORPORATES INTERFEROMETERS WITH CLOSED-CYCLE DETECTOR COOLERS. MIDAC HAS ALSO ALREADY BUILT AND TESTED THE BASIC XM21 INTERFEROMETER, HAS STUDIED ITS DESIGN WEAK POINTS AND KNOWS HOW TO ELIMINATE THEM. AS PART OF THIS EFFORT, WE WOULD INCORPORATE A HIGH SENSITIVITY ROOM TEMPERATURE DETECTOR, WHICH WILL ADDRESS ADDITIONAL SYSTEM PROBLEMS OF POWER, WEIGHT AND COST.