Ultra Precision Surfaces - Translation Grant

超精密表面 - 翻译资助

• 批准号: EP/F031416/1
• 负责人: David Walker
• 金额: $ 85.47万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FF031416%2F1
• 关键词: Ultra; Precision; Surfaces; Translation; Grant

Features of surfaces, such as smoothness or roughness, flatness or curviness, are responsible for many aspects of modern life. Bearings in motorcars are an obvious example. Even in simple digital cameras, precise surfaces on glass lenses are responsible for the ultimate image sharpness. Moveover, much of our culture relies on the computer industry, which in turn depends on micro-chips. But behind the scenes, their manufacture demands ever-increasing accuracy in large lenses used to project the micro-patterns that make them work.Since 2004, a team from University College London and Cranfield University has established the National Facility for Ultra Precision Surfaces in a new building - the OpTIC Technium in North Wales. EPSRC funds this under the 4.2m 'Ultra Precision Surfaces: A New Paradigm' project. The team has been developing manufacturing machines, installing the world's most advanced equipment for making and measuring precise surfaces up to a metre across. Even more ambitiously, the team is exploring interplay between processes; how to make the chain from raw glass to finished component as efficient as possible.Why bother? Well, there are a host of emerging demands in space and on the ground! One of the most exciting is the next generation of truly enormous astronomical telescopes, tiled with hundreds of mirror-segments, each around a metre or two across. These telescopes will look for galaxies back at the time they formed, and search for earth-like planets around other stars; even for the feeble signs of life itself! Mirror technology may well end up changing the whole way that our culture looks upon its place in the universe!As the four-year project draws to a successful conclusion, it is time to ask, what next? This is where the Translation Grant can play an important role as the 'cement' between past and future. It is one thing to be successful in an experimental setting; quite another to apply the results industrially. So the first priority is to translate the results from the current scientific phase into a form suitable for use by industry. This will demand tedious - but crucially important - experiments to perfect how well the processes will deliver exactly the same result: over and over again. And also, how the process 'recipes' need to be changed for working a range of different materials. Then, there are practical issues in making large surfaces that are easy with a team of skilled scientists, but requiring some more work for the factory environment. More broadly, processes we are developing can be adapted to applications unforeseen when we applied for our Basic Technology grant. Little did we know, for example, that the mirror-tile technology for telescopes might help solve the world's energy crisis! But this is true! Here on Earth, taming the fusion processes that make energy within a typical star - such as our own sun - is indeed the most promising long-term answer. One project will focus high-power lasers onto a tiny target, to raise its temperature to the millions of degrees C, needed to ignite fusion. How will the focussing be done? By a large segmented mirror much like those proposed for the extremely large telescopes! But this isn't just a case of using the same mirrors in a different context. Micro-defects that have no effect in cameras or telescopes can cause failure of high-power laser optics. So an important piece of new work will be to develop processes to reduce these defects to the absolute minimum possible. There are other exciting applications, such as peculiar surfaces used to focus X-rays (e.g. for medical imaging), and manufacture of flexible mirrors that can be bent to correct for errors elsewhere. The Translation Grant will give the flexibility to work with industry and other scientists to seize these and other opportunities and establish basic feasibility. Then, we will have the confidence for more substantial programmes to develop the technology furthur.

表面特征，例如光滑度或粗糙度、平坦度或弯曲度，影响着现代生活的许多方面。汽车轴承就是一个明显的例子。即使在简单的数码相机中，玻璃镜头上的精确表面也决定了最终的图像清晰度。此外，我们的文化很大程度上依赖于计算机行业，而计算机行业又依赖于微芯片。但在幕后，它们的制造要求不断提高用于投影微图案的大型透镜的精度，从而使它们发挥作用。自 2004 年以来，伦敦大学学院和克兰菲尔德大学的一个团队在北威尔士的一座新建筑 OpTIC Technium 中建立了国家超精密表面设施。 EPSRC 在 420 万个“超精密表面：新范式”项目下为此提供资金。该团队一直在开发制造机器，安装世界上最先进的设备来制造和测量直径达一米的精确表面。更雄心勃勃的是，该团队正在探索流程之间的相互作用；如何使从原玻璃到成品部件的链条尽可能高效。何必费心呢？好吧，太空和地面上出现了许多新的需求！其中最令人兴奋的是下一代真正巨大的天文望远镜，由数百个镜面组成，每个镜面直径约为一两米。这些望远镜将寻找星系形成时的情况，并寻找其他恒星周围的类地行星；即使是微弱的生命迹象！镜子技术很可能最终会改变我们的文化看待其在宇宙中的地位的整个方式！随着这个为期四年的项目圆满结束，是时候问一下，下一步是什么？这就是翻译补助金可以作为过去和未来之间的“粘合剂”发挥重要作用的地方。在实验环境中取得成功是一回事；在实验环境中取得成功是一回事。将结果应用于工业则是另一回事。因此，首要任务是将当前科学阶段的成果转化为适合工业界使用的形式。这将需要繁琐但至关重要的实验来完善流程，一次又一次地提供完全相同的结果。此外，还需要如何改变工艺“配方”来加工一系列不同的材料。然后，在制造大型表面方面存在一些实际问题，这些表面对于熟练的科学家团队来说很容易实现，但需要在工厂环境中进行更多的工作。更广泛地说，我们正在开发的流程可以适应我们申请基础技术拨款时无法预见的应用。例如，我们几乎不知道望远镜的镜面瓦技术可能有助于解决世界能源危机！但这是真的！在地球上，控制在典型恒星（例如我们自己的太阳）内产生能量的聚变过程确实是最有希望的长期答案。一个项目将把高功率激光聚焦到一个微小的目标上，将其温度提高到点燃聚变所需的数百万摄氏度。对焦将如何进行？通过一个大的分段镜，就像为超大望远镜所提议的那样！但这不仅仅是在不同环境中使用相同镜子的情况。对相机或望远镜没有影响的微小缺陷可能会导致高功率激光光学器件失效。因此，一项重要的新工作将是开发将这些缺陷减少到尽可能少的工艺。还有其他令人兴奋的应用，例如用于聚焦 X 射线的特殊表面（例如用于医学成像），以及制造可弯曲以纠正其他地方的错误的柔性镜子。翻译补助金将提供与工业界和其他科学家合作的灵活性，以抓住这些和其他机会并建立基本的可行性。然后，我们将有信心制定更实质性的计划来进一步发展该技术。

项目成果

Removal of diamond-turning signatures on x-ray mandrels and metal optics by fluid-jet polishing

• DOI: 10.1117/12.787960
• 发表时间: 2008-07
• 作者: A. Beaucamp;R. Freeman;R. Morton;Karthik Ponudurai;D. Walker

The Large Optics Opportunity in the UK - an Update

英国的大型光学机遇——最新动态

• 作者: David Walker (Author)

Public Service Review: Devolved Government

公共服务评论：权力下放的政府

• 期刊: Devolved Government
• 作者: David Walker (Author)

Progress on precise grinding and polishing of thin glass monolithic shell (towards WFXT)

薄玻璃整体壳精密磨削抛光研究进展（面向WFXT）

• DOI: 10.1117/12.895309
• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: Citterio O

Improving Surface PSD Using a Random Tool Path

使用随机刀具路径改进表面 PSD

• DOI: 10.1364/oft.2008.othb5
• 发表时间: 2008
• 作者: Dunn C