NASA 1996 SBIR Phase I

PROJECT TITLE : Nanometer Accuracy Measurement System

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)

Effective deployment of optical instruments requires that the positional accuracy of the deployment be measured with nanometer resolution. Existing measurement systems are expensive and are limited in their accuracy, range and standoff. The Nanometer Accuracy Measurement System (NAMS) is an innovative combination of off-the-shelf hardware and efficient mathematics that will result in a measurement system capable of determining one nanometer positional changes from a distance of over a meter.

A video camera is used in conjunction with a long range microscope to provide digitized samples of a spatially tailored target image. Image post processing accurately determines the motion of the target to less than one 1/1000th of a camera pixel. In a prototype system, this technique has been shown to provide 10 nanometer positional resolution in two degrees of freedom from a 1.2 meter standoff.

Research into the optical configuration and post-processing techniques will increase both the resolution and sample rate of the measurement. Investigation of the target tailoring will enable the system to be self-calibrating and simultaneously measure multiple targets. The resulting measurement system will be able to quantify the effectiveness of various deployment techniques both in ground testing and on orbit.

A high resolution, high standoff measurement device is ideal for many applications in which it is critical that the measurement system does not interfere with the object being measured. Alignment of optical components for all applications ranging from telescope lenses to fiber optic cables require submicron or nanometer positional knowledge. Manufacture of precision electronics and mechanisms routinely require fabrication and assembly tolerances at the submicron level. All of these fields represent market potential for a low cost, zero-intrusion, nanometer accuracy positional measurement device.

Dr. Javier de Luis
Payload Systems Inc.
247 Third St.
Cambridge, MA 02141

Payload Systems Inc.
247 Third St.
Cambridge, MA 02141