SOTER TECHNOLOGY, LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S12

Description

The most practical industrial method for measuring aspheric and free-form parts includes the use of Computer-Generated Holograms, diffractive elements that approximate the ideal method of using Kinoform surfaces. Computer Generated Holograms approximate Kinoforms by using binary diffraction maps, however this approximation leads to errors bleeding into the ideal fringe map when using a CGH for aspheric correction. Traditionally these errors are removed by using processes that decrease aspheric correction capability and increase alignment difficulty, and thus time. We propose a method that would allow us to use Computer Generated Holograms with lower required resolutions than the traditional Computer Generated Hologram test methods. This would decrease the alignment times, and increase the possible aspheric departure of the parts under test, decrease costs and increase capability. The outcome of this will decrease the time and cost of producing aspheric optics, and increase the availability of higher departure aspheric and free-form optics which require even more specialized testing equipment, reducing their cost up to the limits of the CGH. Our plan is to extend analytical simulations of an improved CGH, print a CGH to test the effectiveness of this method, and compare the results to traditional methods for CGH correction.