Monolithic Deformable Mirror

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will utilize surface micromachining techniques to fabricate a low-cost Deformable Mirror (DM). Despite steady improvements in performance, current DMs remain prohibitively expensive. Present devices continue to cost upwards of one thousand dollars per actuator. This is due primarily to manufacturing schemes which rely on precision machining or precision assembly of large numbers of components. Etalon, Inc. proposes a fabrication process which has already proven the potential of reducing costs by at least an order of magnitude. The process relies on a novel microfabrication process to fabricate large area deformable structures monolithically, i.e., as a single component. Using deposited and grown dielectric films, an electrostatically driven membrane mirror can be fabricated with great precision and reliability on an optically finished substrate. No conventional machining is required, and batch production is facilitated. This effort will investigate some of the issues posed by this process, perform an elaborate computer simulation using specialized finite element analysis software, and evaluate the performance of the proposed devices.