Surface Finish Improvement in MEMS Deformable Mirrors for High Contrast Imaging

This proposal aims to make fundamental progress in one of NASArsquo;s core objectives: to explore Earth-like exo-planets using space-based Coronagraphs that null starlight speckles using deformable mirrors (DMs), enabling planet detection. One NASA-identified technology gap is the need for compact, ultraprecise, multi-thousand actuator DMs with surface topography errors of less than 1nm RMS. Boston Micromachines Corporation is a leading producer of such DMs, which have been used in space-based applications and NASA Coronagraph test beds. However, their surface quality is currently limited to ~5nm-rms by topographic print-through on the mirror surface. BMC proposes a modified manufacturing process developed in Phase I research to eliminate print-through. The new process will lead to production of DMs with surface figure errors measuring 1nm-rms that will fill this technology gap for space-based coronagraphs as proposed for future NASA missions, namely the Habitable Worlds Observatory.