Advanced optical systems play a pivotal role in military applications of interest to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) including advanced optical telescopes and imaging LADARs. Optics provides the eyes for surveillance, target detection, tracking, and discrimination. Therefore, improvements in optical surface fabrication and optical system alignment are important targets for research and development efforts. It is imperative to bring the next generation systems that have been developed over the last decade out of the laboratory and into production facilities with a keen eye to reducing the touch labor needed to assemble the optical systems. To make this class of advanced optical systems available for defense of the US, an enhanced design, manufacturing, and assembly environment is needed; one that enables a new class of optical surfaces. This environment must reduce and potentially even eliminate the number of technologists needed in production. Defining the kernel of this manufacturing and assembly environment is the subject of Phase I of this SBIR. Future phases will address other issues that are important to realizing a production environment for MDA systems including: · Enhanced optical surface manufacturing processes, · Improved optical surface measurement capabilities, · Real-time optical assembly procedures, and · Building a prototype system
Keywords: Freeform Surfaces, Optical Design, Optical Fabrication, Optical Measurement, Optical Assembly, Optical Alignment, Seekers
