A-Z INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S12

Description

A-Z Innovative Solutions proposes to develop a computer- numerical-controlled deterministic polishing machine specialized for X-ray mirror surface finishing. The proposed new technique is particularly suiting for large cylindrical X-ray mirrors (between 100 and 1,000 mm in height, 50 to 5000 mm in diameter, varying radial prescription along azimuth, ~2 mm in thickness) for NASArsquo;s space X-ray observer by introducing the substrate X-direction step-rotating scan mechanism. By incorporating chemical reactive removal mechanism, this new tool will drastically speed up the deterministic process with much better surface smoothness finishing quality. In this program, we anticipate to achieve:nbsp;Ultra-high precision surface finishing capability of 0.1 arcsec half-power diameter (HPD) with RMS lt; 0.6 nmnbsp;nbsp;Radial slope error lt;0.1 uradShape error out-of-round lt; 0.4micro;m for X-ray cylindrical mirrors5 to 10 times better surface smoothness (0.1 nm RMS) is expected over the present deterministic techniquesWith the innovative removal mechanism, 5 to 10 times better surface smoothness is expected over the present deterministic techniques as the chemical reactive removal is at the atomic level, rather than to knock off material as aggregates of molecules by bombardment from FJP, MRF and Ion-Beam Figuring flows.High-speed for use on large areas and cost effective