MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Precision Surface Characterization

该补助金为北卡罗来纳州州立大学精密工程中心的设备升级提供支持，用于精密制造、计量和控制方面的研究和教育。 将购买三台设备：一台大孔径（150毫米）形状测量干涉仪、一台白光干涉显微镜和一台大样品原子力显微镜。 每个器件都覆盖测量光谱的特定空间波长/振幅区域，它们共同提供了广泛的测量能力-从大型光学表面的形状误差到加工过程中创建的表面细节。这些仪器将被教师，工作人员和学生用来进行各种研究项目。 实例包括制造硬盘磁头、通过注塑成型复制塑料光子器件、从硬钢加工注塑模具以及制造惯性约束聚变实验的目标。 这些项目涵盖了广泛的工业部门，但在目标是理解和控制生产精确和可重复组件的过程中是相似的。 每个项目都需要能够测量所创建的表面的各个方面-有时需要整体形状，有时需要表面光洁度的细节。 升级后的仪器将增强定义所创建表面的能力，并将改进相关的精密制造工艺。

This grant provides support for upgraded equipment at the Precision Engineering Center at North Carolina State University for research and education in precision fabrication, metrology and control. Three pieces of equipment will be purchased: a large aperture (150 mm) form measuring interferometer, a white-light interferometric microscope and a large-sample Atomic Force Microscope. Each device covers a certain spatial wavelength/amplitude region of the measurement spectrum and together they provide the ability to measure over a wide range - from form error on large optical surfaces to the details of surfaces created in a machining process. These instruments will be used by faculty, staff and students to pursue a variety of research projects. Examples include the manufacturing of hard disk heads, replication of plastic photonic devices by injection molding, machining of injection molds from hard steel and fabrication of targets for inertial confinement fusion experiments. These projects cover a broad range of industrial sectors but are similar in that the goal is to understand and control a process to produce accurate and repeatable components. Each project requires the ability to measure aspects of the surfaces created - sometimes the overall shape is of interest and sometimes the details of the surface finish is needed. The upgraded instruments will enhance the capability to define the surfaces created and will lead to improvements in the precision fabrication process of interest.