Applied Materials Technology Limited - Low Cost Custom Laser Reflectors

应用材料技术(AMT)提出了一个为期12个月、GB 187k的原型项目，以发展可拆卸变形反射镜(DDM)，这是一种生产负担得起的、定制的、高精度光学设备反射镜的新方法。DDM将允许光束质量的转变，即从高度像差的光束转变为接近1.1的M2。AMT最初将把DDM定位于激光市场；这是一个自2009年以来经历了强劲、持续增长的大型行业。许多激光用户要求高光束质量，目前通过固有的高光束质量激光器和/或包括自适应光学(AO)在内的矫正光学装置以高成本实现这一点。高光束质量的激光市场在成本、系统质量、体积和效率上展开竞争；以低成本生产紧凑、轻便、高效和高光束质量的激光的方法具有极大的颠覆性。DDM将允许用紧凑、高效、低质量的激光光源以低成本产生高质量的光束。DDM和AO有一些相似之处；每个都涉及光束特性的测量，以及计算机驱动的致动器阵列来控制可变形反射镜的几何形状，从而控制反射光束特性。DDM中的关键创新步骤允许在与驱动器阵列分离时保持镜子几何形状，然后将定制的镜子提供给客户，然后由镜子制造商重复使用驱动器阵列。该项目的主要阶段是：最终确定镜子的设计和材料；建立制造工艺；进行试验以确认方法的有效性。通过对定制镜子采取干净的方法，AMT将以自适应光学器件1/40至1/10的目标价格将DDM推向市场，提供成本节约并开辟潜在的新使用领域。该产品的及时性和潜在需求得到了一系列领先的行业专家和高价值制造公司的支持。

Applied Materials Technology (AMT) proposes a 12 month, £187k, development of prototypeproject to progress Decoupleable Deformable Mirrors (DDM), a novel approach to theproduction of affordable, custom, high precision mirrors for optical devices. DDM will allowbeam quality to be transformed i.e. from a highly aberrated beam to M2 approaching 1.1.AMT will initially target DDM at the laser market; a large industry that has experiencedstrong, continued growth since 2009. Many laser users demand high beam quality, currentlyachieved at high cost by inherently high beam quality lasers, and/or by corrective optics,including adaptive optics (AO). The high beam quality laser market competes on cost, systemmass, volume & efficiency; a method for producing compact, light, efficient & high beamquality lasers at low cost has the potential to be highly disruptive. DDM will allow highquality beams to be produced from compact, efficient, low quality laser sources at low cost.DDM & AO share some similarities; each involve the measurement of beam characteristics,and a computer-driven actuator array to control the geometry of the deformable mirror whichgoverns the reflected beam characteristics. Crucial innovative steps in DDM allow the mirrorgeometry to be maintained when decoupled from the actuator array, with the custom mirrorthen being provided to the customer and the actuator array being reused by the mirrormanufacturer.The principal stages of the project are: to finalise the design & materials for the mirror; toestablish a manufacturing process; to conduct trials to confirm the validity of the approach.By taking a clean-sheet approach to the custom mirrors, AMT will bring DDM to market at atarget price of 1/40 to 1/10 the cost of adaptive optics, offering cost saving and opening uppotential new areas for use. The timeliness and potential demand for the product have beensupported by a range of leading industry experts and high value manufacturing companies.