Design & Development of Metrology Facilities

Beginning with my masters thesis research at MIT, the design of special purpose measurement devices is a special interest of mine.  The thesis work was a problem in sub-micron metrology for in-process gauging during the manufacturing of multilayer, photo reactive precision plastic films.  This was sponsored research for Dupont Corporation. The task was complicated by the extreme light sensitivity of the film. The solution to this measurement task was a multi-frequency IR attenuation method.  Independent verification I did interferometrically, by counting internal reflectance fringes on a Perkin Elmer 580 Spectrophotometer.

Since this academic work in measurement science, I have been involved with the creation of measurement methods, measurement facilities, or the special application of an existing measurement method in a special circumstance (e.g. holographic interferometry at cryogenic temperatures).
Some of the more interesting facilities for which the primary design and configuration were mine, are those described below. Typically the cryogenic cooling, the thermal and vibration isolation systems, and the optomechanical systems and the contract management were done my me.  The optical portion (e.g. a Polytech vibrometer) was either purchased or the optical measurements (Zygo Mark IV &  operators) were contracted.

Facilities of Interest Include

NGST Actuator Test Facility
Lead Engineer. Development of a facility to characterize actuators and actuator technology for the many moving, and variably shaped mirror panels on NGST.
• cooling of mechanical actuators to 20 k
• measurement of stroke to a resolution of 50 nanometers
• measurement of travel to 50 mm or so
• Polytech vibrometer employed
• cost & schedule objectives met


SIRTF Telescope Test Facility
Lead mechanical engineer in the original build phase, and contract manager for major sub-assemblies. This facility continues to be used, and has been extended for other applications.
• cooling of an 85 cm diameter cassegrain telescope assembly and optical flat to helium temperatures
• vibration isolation for the entire structure
• technical management of dewar contract with Janis Research Inc. of Wilmington MA
• contract measurement of mirror surface figure done by Ball Aerospace & others
• cost & schedule objectives met


Magnetostrictive Materials Test Facility
On the NASA Microgravity Adv. Tech. Dev. Grant for Magnetostrictive Actuator development, for which I was PI, a facility was needed for the characterization of low temperature actuator materials.  This facility included:
• Hewlett Package fringe-counting interferometer employed with helium Janis Research Co. Dewar
• test samples at helium temperature, with externally applied, variable force load
• cost & schedule objectives met


Holographic Cryogenic Interferometry Test Facility
Lead mechanical engineer. This facility was used to check the flatness of silicon wafers as they were cooled from room temperature to cryogenic temperature.  The facility included:
• vibration isolated probe
• test samples at nitrogen temperature
• cost & schedule objectives met