Rapid Additive Mirror Processes (RAMP) Phase 2

The heart of every ground or orbital optical and IR sensor, and every advanced optical communication link, is an energy concentrator lens or mirror. The largest and most broad-band of these elements are reflecting mirrors. The US Air Force and Space Force will use these advanced mirror technologies that are lighter and cheaper to create optics to deploy more agile and fault tolerant orbital communication and reconnaissance networks in space, and larger more sensitive optical networks on the ground. MorphOptic, Inc. (MO) has discovered how to make mirrors which are not only 10x lighter than current state-of-the-art designs, but also much less expensive to produce. This technology will enable larger distributed optical systems with greater bandwidth, image resolution, sensitivity to faint targets, and robustness than has up until now been practical. Conventional precise mirrors are costly because they require many cycles of abrasive glass shaping (“polishing”), and precise metrology. In some cases the cost of the fabrication hardware for even small optical mirrors can be several million dollars. A typical meter-scale precision mirror today costs about $0.4M/m2 and these are often the overall pacing components in imaging and communication systems. We call our physics-based method for creating thin mirrors without abrasive surface shaping, “curvature polishing.”  It creates optics that are smoother than conventional techniques. With modified Commercially Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware, MO can shape mm-thickness glass to optical precision without ever touching the smooth, fire-polished, front mirror surface. Our fabrication  material is typically borofloat glass that is relatively inexpensive and commercially available so that the cost per m2 can be reduced from $400K to just a few thousand dollars per m2. This strategic approach allows us to shape mirrors from the backside of the mirror surface while preserving the smooth commercially produced fire polished surface. This work develops the Phase I MO AF/STTR “Rapid Additive Mirror Process (RAMP)” into a commercially viable product. We previously demonstrated how thin glass surfaces could be successfully shaped to optical accuracy using thermal infrared laser pulses and back-surface stress relieving roughening. Our techniques were guided by accurate multiphysics finite element computer models that will now be tuned for producing optics for specific USSF applications.