Single Crystal Piezoelectric Stack Actuator DM with Integrated Low-Power HVA-Based Driver ASIC

This SBIR Phase I project aims to develop an innovative batch fabrication technique to create single crystal PMN-PT stack actuator deformable mirrors (DM) at low cost of up to one order of magnitude reduction to those offered by the state of the art manufacturing techniques. The method, being applicable to produce high-performance deformable mirrors with a large variety of pixel densities and actuator counts, is also proposed to seamlessly integrate the DM manufacturing process with a novel low-power HVA-based driver ASIC, hence an enhancement of the proposed batch manufacturing process by reliably packaging DMs with high yield, zero failure pixel, and with high optical qualities, and on top of these offering ultra low crosstalk among DM pixels which is demanded for high-resolution mirror surface control. Low pay load, high performances, low cost, and low power, are the four keys that can lead a DM to successful implementation into NASA's high-performance systems. For lab testing, concept inspiration, and concept validation, the AO communities need high-performance but low-cost DMs to study wide variety of AO concepts on a tight budget and in a timely fashion; on the other hand, once an AO concept is approved, a space-based adaptive optics system will additionally demand low payload and low power dissipation for space-based deployment. The proposed DM manufacturing and ASIC integration technique aims to develop DMs to meet the two staged needs through one joint DM development program.

In general, future high-performance systems for: (1) correction of aberrations in large-aperture, space-deployed optical interferometers and telescopes, (2) high-resolution imaging and communication through atmospheric turbulence, (3) laser beam steering, and (4) optical path alignment, (5) propagation of directed laser energy through atmospheric turbulence, will require deformable mirror (DM) wavefront correctors with several hundred to millions of elements. More specifically, NASA missions and instruments that would benefit from the proposed DM manufacturing/packaging technology are Visible Nulling Coronagraph (VNC), single aperture far-infrared observatory (SAFIR), Extrasolar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC), and the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF). Other NASA projects that would benefit from the proposed TTP mirror technology include the Submillimeter Probe of the Evolutionary Cosmic Structure (SPECS), the Stellar Imager (SI) and the Earth Atmospheric Solar occultation Imager (EASI).

Non-NASA applications include laser beam shaping, ophthalmology and other microscope applications. In particular, for the Department of Defense, if needed, the prototype adaptive optical systems based on the Phase II results can be applied to military seekers, FLIRs, optical communications, and other adaptive optics systems for military operations. For optical computing, the VLSI circuit could be combined with piston-only micromirror structure for a phase-only spatial light modulator. Commercial markets for these systems also include retinal imaging, supernormal human vision, and amateur telescopes. The research is also expected to lead to a family of compact, low-cost, high performance spatial light modulators for direct retinal display, head mount display, and large-screen projection display applications.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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