Manufacturing and Tooling Optimizationfor Mirror Quality Assurance of High-Actuator-Count Deformable Mirrors

This SBIR Phase I project aims to continue the manufacturing optimization ofnbsp;the mirror quality for both of our PZT stack actuator DMs and our next-generationnbsp;single-crystal PMN-PTnbsp;stack actuator DMs. With verified DM performance in terms of key performance parameters such as stroke, leakage current, speed, influence function as well asnbsp;the validity of the superposition law in the DM control, the innovation further strives to scaling upnbsp;the manufacturing process and tooling capabilitynbsp;to ultimately improve the mirror quality of large-actuator-countnbsp;DMs in order to make them worthy of being considered for future NASA#39;s flagship missions.nbsp;The innovation leverages on our experience in developing stack actuator DMs as well asnbsp;ASIC-based driver electronics, enabling the next-generation DMnbsp;systems (with compact and high-resolution driver electronics)nbsp;that are alsonbsp;featured with: reduced number of wires from thousands to several tens, reduction of the power dissipation by two (2) orders of magnitude, shrinking of the form factor (weight/size) of the DM driver electronics by up to two (2) orders of magnitude, and reducing the DM cost by about 5 times. With both DM and the driver ASIC scalable to 96x96, 128x128 or larger format, the innovation holds promise of filling the NASA Technology Gap on DM and associating driver electronics connectors/cables as listed in the recently released Exoplanet Exploration Program Technology Plan Appendix.