Additive Manufacturing of High-Precision, High-Numerical Aperture Silicon Carbide Optics

The Navy has identified a need to cost-effectively manufacture hard ceramic optical mirror surfaces with high numerical aperture (NA). Current manufacturing methods are either incapable of producing precise, high-NA surfaces or incapable of finishing fully dense, hard ceramics. Additive Innovations, along with optical processing partner Optimax Systems, are proposing to develop an additive manufactured (AM) silicon carbide material that can be printed to near net shape and final machined to meet the Navy’s requirements for high-NA optics. Additive Innovations has developed a process to produce near net shape silicon carbide using binder jet AM, while Optimax Systems are experts at the machining, grinding and polishing of hard ceramics to produce high-quality optics. During this Phase I project, Additive Innovations will optimize the printing and densification processes for this material to produce the highest resolution substrates. Optimax Systems will then take the densified substrate and perform final machining and polishing to meet the strict requirements of the Navy for the high-NA optics. The optical properties of the material will be quantified and reported. Follow-on phases of the project will focus on validating the repeatability of the process and increasing the use of automation to reduce the overall costs of producing the high-NA optics. Upon completion of this project, Additive Innovations and Optimax will have optimized a process and proven the feasibility to produce high-NA optics for the Navy. The process that is developed during this project will not only be able to be used by the Navy and other optics applications, but will be able to be offered to other industries that could benefit from a high-resolution silicon carbide, such as heat exchangers or semiconductors.