Wei-Cheng Lin

The alignment of the aerospace Cassegrain telescope primary mirror and iso-static mount by using CMM

In order to meet both optical performance and structural stiffness requirements of the aerospace Cassegrain telescope, the primary mirror shall be mounted with the main plate by iso-static mount. This article describes of the alignment of the aerospace Cassegrain telescopes primary mirror and iso-static mount by using coordinate-measuring machine (CMM), and the design and assembly of mechanical ground support equipment (MGSE). The primary mirror adjusting MGSE consists of three 3-axis linear stages and point contact platforms, which hold the mirror while avoid the rotated movement when adjusting the stage. This MGSE provide the adjustment of tilt and height for the mirror. After the CMM measurement, the coordinates of measured point on the mirror will be analyzed by the software based on least square fitting to find the radius of curvature, conic constant, de-center and tilt, etc. According to these results, the mirror posture will be adjusted to reduce de-center and tilt by the designed MGSE. The tilt in x and y direction are reduced within 0.001 degrees and the distance deviation from the best fitted profile of the mirror to the main plate shall be less than 0.008mm.

Alignment and assembly process for primary mirror subsystem of a spaceborne telescope

Abstract. In this study, a multispectral spaceborne Cassegrain telescope was developed. The telescope was equipped with a primary mirror with a 450-mm clear aperture composed of Zerodur and lightweighted at a ratio of approximately 50% to meet both thermal and mass requirements. Reducing the astigmatism was critical for this mirror. The astigmatism is caused by gravity effects, the bonding process, and deformation from mounting the main structure of the telescope (main plate). This article presents the primary mirror alignment, mechanical ground-supported equipment (MGSE), assembly process, and optical performance test used to assemble the primary mirror. A mechanical compensated shim is used as the interface between the bipod flexure and main plate. The shim was used to compensate for manufacturer errors found in components and differences between local coplanarity errors to prevent stress while the bipod flexure was screwed to the main plate. After primary mirror assembly, an optical performance test method called a bench test with an algorithm was used to analyze the astigmatism caused by the gravity effect and deformation from the mounting or supporter. The tolerance conditions for the primary mirror assembly require the astigmatism caused by gravity and mounting force deformation to be less than P−V 0.02 λ at 632.8 nm. The results demonstrated that the designed MGSE used in the alignment and assembly processes met the critical requirements for the primary mirror assembly of the telescope.

Process of opto-mechanical design and assembly for reflective mirror subsystem of lithographic projection lens

Considering the system performance of the projection lens, not only surface quality of the optics shall be concerned, misalignment between each optics and the wavefront distortion contributed by the mounting stress and gravity are also the factors degraded the optical performance. This article introduces the opto-mechanical design and stress-free assembly process of the reflective mirror subsystem with 300 mm in outer diameter of an I-line lithographic projection lens. The flexure with mounting position pass through the center gravity of the mirror can be adopted as supporting mechanism to prevent the gravity distortion. The distortion due to temperature difference can be avoided by adopting CLERACREAM®-Z glass ceramic and INVAR for material of reflective mirror and supporting flexure respectively. The adjustment mechanism of the mirror subsystem integrates the concepts of Kinematic and exact constraint to provide six degrees of freedom (6DoF) of posture adjustment of the mirror. Furthermore, the assembly process of the flexure which minimizes the mounting stress on the mirror is presented. In the end of this article, interferometric performance test of the reflective mirror after opto-mechanical assembly compared with the measurement result in manufacturing stage is also presented. With the proposed opto-mechanical design and stress-free mounting process of the mirror, the surface distortion contributed by the amount of mounting stress and gravity effect is less than P-V 0.02 wave @632.8 nm.

Absolute measurement method for correction of low-spatial frequency surface figures of aspherics

Abstract. An absolute measurement method involving a computer-generated hologram to facilitate the identification of manufacturing form errors and mounting- and gravity-induced deformations of a 300-mm aspheric mirror is proposed. In this method, the frequency and magnitude of the curve graph plotted from each Zernike coefficient obtained by rotating the mirror with various orientations about optical axis were adopted to distinguish the nonrotationally symmetric aberration. In addition, the random ball test was used to calibrate the rotationally symmetric aberration (spherical aberration). The measured absolute surface figure revealed that a highly accurate aspheric surface with a peak-to-valley value of 1/8 wave at 632.8 nm was realized after the surface figure was corrected using the reconstructed error map.

A novel absolute measurement for the low-frequency figure correction of aspheric surfaces

This study proposes an absolute measurement method with a computer-generated hologram (CGHs) to assist the identification of manufacturing form error, and gravity and mounting resulted distortions for a 300 mm aspherical mirror. This method adopts the frequency of peaks and valleys of each Zernike coefficient grabbed by the measurement with various orientations of the mirror in horizontal optical-axis configuration. In addition, the rotational-symmetric aberration (spherical aberration) is calibrated with random ball test method. According to the measured absolute surface figure, a high accuracy aspherical surface with peak to valley (P-V) value of 1/8 wave @ 632.8 nm was fabricated after surface figure correction with the reconstructed error map.

The refractive lens heat absorption from light source caused thermal aberration analysis

When under high energy light source conditions, an optical system’s refractive lens will absorb heat from the light source. As such, the lens absorbs heat from light and transfers this to the surroundings by conduction. This heat transfer will result in lens temperature differences and introduce optical aberration into the optical system. This study aimed to calculate the heat absorption ratio and temperature distribution within the lens. The light source energy from each ray can be weighted using the Finite Element Method (FEM) of grids, which allows calculation of the thermal distribution within the lens. The optical system rays passing through the lens position are calculated by ray tracing in different Fields Of View (FOV). The lens temperature distribution is weighted to each incidence ray path, and the thermal Optical Path Difference (OPD) is calculated. The thermal OPD on the optical axis is transferred to optical aberration by fitting OPD and the Zernike polynomial. The aberration results can be used to evaluate the thermal effects upon the lens system.

Analysis of target wavefront error for secondary mirror of a spaceborne telescope

During the fabrication of an aspherical mirror, the inspection of the residual wavefront error is critical. In the program of a spaceborne telescope development, primary mirror is made of ZERODUR with clear aperture of 450 mm. The mass is 10 kg after lightweighting. Deformation of mirror due to gravity is expected; hence uniform supporting measured by load cells has been applied to reduce the gravity effect. Inspection has been taken to determine the residual wavefront error at the configuration of mirror face upwards. Correction polishing has been performed according to the measurement. However, after comparing with the data measured by bench test while the primary mirror is at a configuration of mirror face horizontal, deviations have been found for the two measurements. Optical system that is not able to meet the requirement is predicted according to the measured wavefront error by bench test. A target wavefront error of secondary mirror is therefore analyzed to correct that of primary mirror. Optical performance accordingly is presented.

The correct lens mount lightweighting design and thermal stress OPD analysis in Cassegrain telescope

This study is trying to evaluate different lens barrel material, caused lens stress OPD (Optical Path Different) in different temperature condition. The Cassegrain telescopes correct lens assembly are including as correct lens, lens mount, spacer, mount barrel and retainer. The lens barrel initial design is made by invar, but system mass limit is need to lightweighting to meet requirement. Therefore, the lens barrel material is tried to replace to lower density material, such as aluminum and titanium alloy. Meanwhile, the aluminum or titanium alloy material properties CTE (Coefficient of Thermal Expansion) are larger then invar. Thus, the high CTE material will introduce larger thermal stress into the optical system in different temperature condition. This article is analysis the correct lens assembly thermal stress and optical performance in different lens mount material. From above conditions, using FEM (Finite Element Method) and optical software, simulation and optimization the lens mount to achieve system mass requirement.

The optical performance test of lightweight primary mirror of space Cassegrain telescope

The Remote sensing instrument ( RSI ) under developing is a Cassegrain telescope with clear aperture of 450 mm. In order to meet specifications for thermal distortion, self-weight deformation of the mirror and weight budget of the system, the primary mirror has been lightweighted at the ratio about 50 % with hexagon cell structures from a Zerodur blank. For this mid-large lightweight mirror, the optical performance test is challenging during both the manufacture and assembly phases. While in the optical measurement, there are some unexpected errors caused erroneous judgments for the mirror induced by the external force or environmental deviation. For example, it’s difficult to specify the measured astigmatism caused from the form error after polishing or surface deformation by the external force from the supporter or mechanical mount. In this paper, the optical performance test called bench test to get the absolute measurement result for the lightweight mirror is presented. After measurement, a novel algorithm is adopted to analyze the astigmatism caused from the gravity effect and form error from manufacture and the deformation from the mounting or supporter. Also, the measurements with different supporter compared with vertical and horizontal setup are compared in the end of this article.

Stress optical path difference analysis of off-axis lens ray trace footprint

The mechanical and thermal stress on lens will cause the glass refractive index different, the refractive index of light parallel and light perpendicular to the direction of stress. The refraction index changes will introduce Optical Path Difference (OPD). This study is applying Finite Element Method (FEM) and optical ray tracing; calculate off axis ray stress OPD. The optical system stress distribution result is calculated from finite element simulation, and the stress coordinate need to rotate to optical path direction. Meanwhile, weighting stress to each optical ray path and sum the ray path OPD. The Z-direction stress OPD can be fitted by Zernike polynomial, the separated to sag difference, and rigid body motion. The fitting results can be used to evaluate the stress effect on optical component.