This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9951, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

Multispectral space telescopes with visible to long wave infrared spectral bands provide difficult alignment challenges. The visible channels require precision in alignment and stability to provide good image quality in short wavelengths. This is most often accomplished by choosing materials with near zero thermal expansion glass or ceramic mirrors metered with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) that are designed to have a matching thermal expansion. The IR channels are less sensitive to alignment but they often require cryogenic cooling for improved sensitivity with the reduced radiometric background. Finding efficient solutions to this difficult problem of maintaining good visible image quality at cryogenic temperatures has been explored with the building and testing of a telescope simulator. The telescope simulator is an onaxis ZERODUR® mirror, CFRP metered set of optics. Testing has been completed to accurately measure telescope optical element alignment and mirror figure changes in a cryogenic space simulated environment. Measured alignment error and mirror figure error test results are reported with a discussion of their impact on system optical performance.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will carry four visible waveband seven-element refractive f/1.4 lenses, each with a 34 degree diagonal field of view. This paper describes the tolerancing, assembly and alignment methods developed during the build of the TESS Risk Reduction Unit optical system. Lens assembly tolerances were derived from a sensitivity analysis using an image quality metric customized for mission performance. The optomechanical design consists of a two-stage lens housing that provides access for active alignment of each lens using a Trioptics OptiCentric measurement system. Thermal stresses and alignment shifts are mitigated by mounting the optics with cast RTV silicone spacers into individually aligned bezels, and custom fixtures were developed to aid in RTV bonding with reduced alignment error. The lens assembly was tested interferometrically over the field of view at room temperature and results were used to successfully predict lens performance and compensator adjustments and detector shim thickness for the -75C operational temperature and pressure.

Alignment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Optical Telescope Element (OTE) requires a multitude of demanding and exacting dimensional and positional measurements. Many of the alignment requirements are in the range of hundreds of microns over significant distances (up to 8 m) on a flexible structure, which creates stringent accuracy demands on the alignment measurements. Furthermore, to optimize the performance of the system, the telescope is aligned to a relatively small (<1 m) structure in the center, creating the potential for coordinate system errors. Measurements have been performed using laser trackers (predominantly), photogrammetry, coordinate measurement machine (CMM), and laser radar instruments. Measurements from different instruments/ stations are combined and processed within SpatialAnalyzer (SA) commercial software using the Unified Spatial Metrology Network (USMN) feature. While this approach should yield the best possible accuracies (hopefully in the tens of microns range), our experience has been that there can be significant errors in the data based on the details of how SA is set up and how the measurements are conducted. As a result of our experience, we have developed analytical tools and processes that allow us to test the data veracity in near real time using, for example, Excel spreadsheet calculations. These tools combine measurements made at various levels of assembly, measurements of cross check points, and finite element analysis to determine the correlated and uncorrelated discrepancies in the measured data. This provides a detailed understanding of systematic and random measurement errors and has allowed us to quickly uncover issues with placement, measurement, and modeling, as well as to quantify our measurement performance.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a 6.5m diameter, segmented, deployable telescope for cryogenic IR space astronomy. The JWST Observatory includes the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), that contains four science instruments (SI) and the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS). The SIs are mounted to a composite metering structure. The SIs and FGS were integrated to the ISIM structure and optically tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center using the Optical Telescope Element SIMulator (OSIM). OSIM is a full-field, cryogenic JWST telescope simulator. SI performance, including alignment and wavefront error, was evaluated using OSIM. We describe test and analysis methods for optical performance verification of the ISIM Element, with an emphasis on the processes used to plan and execute the test. The complexity of ISIM and OSIM drove us to develop a software tool for test planning that allows for configuration control of observations, implementation of associated scripts, and management of hardware and software limits and constraints, as well as tools for rapid data evaluation, and flexible re-planning in response to the unexpected. As examples of our test and analysis approach, we discuss how factors such as the ground test thermal environment are compensated in alignment. We describe how these innovative methods for test planning and execution and post-test analysis were instrumental in the verification program for the ISIM element, with enough information to allow the reader to consider these innovations and lessons learned in this successful effort in their future testing for other programs.

This paper describes the critical instrument alignment terms associated with the six-degree of freedom alignment of each the Science Instrument (SI) in the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including focus, pupil shear, pupil clocking, and boresight. We present the test methods used during cryogenic-vacuum tests to directly measure the performance of each parameter, the requirements levied on each, and the impact of any violations of these requirements at the instrument and Observatory level.

A convenient method to assemble optomechanical components is to use threaded interface. For example, lenses are often secured inside barrels using threaded rings. In other cases, multiple optical sub-assemblies such as lens barrels can be threaded to each other. Threads have the advantage to provide a simple assembly method, to be easy to manufacture, and to offer a compact mechanical design. On the other hand, threads are not considered to provide accurate centering between parts because of the assembly clearance between the inner and outer threads. For that reason, threads are often used in conjunction with precision cylindrical surfaces to limit the radial clearance between the parts to be centered. Therefore, tight manufacturing tolerances are needed on these pilot diameters, which affect the cost of the optical assembly. This paper presents a new optomechanical approach that uses threads as mechanical reference. This innovative method relies on geometric principles to auto-center parts to each other with a very low centering error that is usually less than 5 μm. The method allows to auto-center an optical group in a main barrel, to perform an axial adjustment of an optical group inside a main barrel, and to perform stacking of multiple barrels. In conjunction with the lens auto-centering method that also used threads as a mechanical reference, this novel solution opens new possibilities to realize a variety of different high precision optomechanical assemblies at lower cost.

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and its partners have broad experience in the alignment of flight optical instruments and spacecraft structures. Over decades, GSFC developed alignment capabilities and techniques for a variety of optical and aerospace applications. In this paper, we provide an overview of a subset of the capabilities and techniques used on several recent projects in a “toolbox” format. We discuss a range of applications, from small-scale optical alignment of sensors to mirror and bench examples that make use of various large-volume metrology techniques. We also discuss instruments and analytical tools.

The design and performance of a compact, adaptable autostigmatic alignment modulate that can be used as an autocollimator or autostigmatic microscope is described. The new instrument utilizes LED illumination and reticle projection and is compared with a laser diode based point source microscope. Measurement characteristics and practical differences and similarities between the instruments are described.

We present an integrated array imaging system based on a stack of microlens arrays. The microlens arrays are manufactured by melting resist and reactive ion etching (RIE) technology on 8’’ wafers (fused silica) and mounted by wafer-level packaging (WLP)¹. The array imaging system is configured for 1X projection (magnification m = +1) of a mask pattern onto a planar wafer. The optical system is based on two symmetric telescopes, thus anti-symmetric wavefront aberrations like coma, distortion, lateral color are minimal. Spherical aberrations are reduced by using microlenses with aspherical lens profiles. In our system design approach, sub-images of individual imaging channels do not overlap to avoid interference. Image superposition is achieved by moving the array imaging system during the exposure time. A tandem Koehler integrator illumination system (MO Exposure Optics) is used for illumination. The angular spectrum of the illumination light underfills the pupils of the imaging channels to avoid crosstalk. We present and discuss results from simulation, mounting and testing of a first prototype of the investigated array imaging system for lithography.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a 6.6m diameter, segmented, deployable telescope for cryogenic IR space astronomy. The JWST Observatory architecture includes the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) element which contains four science instruments (SI), including a guider. The SIs and guider are mounted to a composite metering structure with outer envelope approximate measurements of 2.2x2.2x1.7m. These SI units are integrated to the ISIM structure and optically tested at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as an instrument suite using an Optical telescope element SIMulator (OSIM). OSIM is a high-fidelity, cryogenic JWST simulator that features a ~1.5m diameter powered mirror. The SIs are aligned to the flight structure’s coordinate system under ambient, clean room conditions using opto-mechanical metrology and customized interfaces. OSIM is aligned to the ISIM mechanical coordinate system at the cryogenic operating temperature via internal mechanisms and feedback from alignment sensors and metrology in six degrees of freedom. SI performance, including focus, pupil shear, pupil roll, boresight, wavefront error, and image quality, is evaluated at the operating temperature using OSIM. This work reports on the as-run ambient assembly and ambient alignment steps for the flight ISIM, including SI interface fixtures and customization and kinematic mount adjustment. The ISIM alignment plan consists of multiple steps to meet the “absolute” alignment requirements of the SIs and OSIM to the flight coordinate system. In this paper, we focus on key aspects of absolute, optical-mechanical alignment. We discuss various metrology and alignment techniques. In addition, we summarize our approach for dealing with and the results of ground-test factors, such as gravity.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a 6.5m diameter, segmented, deployable telescope for cryogenic IR space astronomy (~40K). The JWST Observatory architecture includes the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) element that contains four science instruments (SI), including a guider. OSIM is a full field, cryogenic, optical simulator of the JWST OTE. It is the “Master Tool” for verifying the cryogenic alignment and optical performance of ISIM by providing simulated point source/star images to each of the four Science Instruments in ISIM. Included in OSIM is a Pupil Imaging Module (PIM) - a large format CCD used for measuring pupil alignment. Located at a virtual stop location within OSIM, the PIM records superimposed shadow images of pupil alignment reference (PAR) targets located in the OSIM and SI pupils. The OSIM Pupil Imaging Module was described by Brent Bos, et al, at SPIE in 2011 prior to ISIM testing. We have recently completed the third and final ISIM cryogenic performance verification test before ISIM was integrated with the OTE. In this paper, we describe PIM implementation, performance, and measurement results.

OSIM is a full field, cryogenic, optical simulator of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Optical Telescope Element (OTE). It is the “Master Tool” for verifying the cryogenic alignment and optical performance of the JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) by providing simulated point source/star images individually or simultaneously to each of the four Science Instruments in ISIM. Additionally, each star image can be scanned in focus to support the evaluation of both image quality and best focus for each Science Instrument. OSIM has recently completed supporting the ISIM performance verification test campaign which spanned three separate cryogenic test campaigns over 3 years. In this paper, we describe the alignment to the JWST coordinate system at cryogenic temperatures, OSIM optical performance, repeatability, and its role in testing the cryogenic optical performance of the individual Science Instruments in addition to providing calibration data needed for flight operations.

JWST will be the biggest space telescope ever built and it will lead to astounding scientific breakthroughs. The mission will be launched in October 2018 from Kourou, French Guyana by an ESA provided Ariane 5 rocket. NIRSpec, one of the four instruments on board of the mission, recently underwent a major upgrade. New infrared detectors were installed and the Micro Shutter Assembly (MSA) was replaced as well. The rework was necessary because both systems were found to be degrading beyond a level that could be accepted. The installation and “in situ” alignment of these new systems required special techniques and alignment jigs that will be described in this paper. Some first results will be presented as well.

This paper describes a novel gap gauge tool that is used to provide an independent check of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Optical Telescope Element (OTE) primary mirror alignment. Making accurate measurements of the mechanical gaps between the OTE mirror segments is needed to verify that the segments were properly aligned relative to each other throughout the integration and test of the 6.6 meter telescope. The gap between the Primary Mirror Segment Assemblies (PMSA) is a sensitive indicator of the relative clocking and decenter. Further, the gap measurements are completely independent of all the other measurements use in the alignment process (e.g. laser trackers and laser radar). The gap measurement is a challenge, however, that required a new approach. Commercial gap measurements tools were investigated; however no suitable solution is available. The challenge of this measurement is due to the required 0.1 mm accuracy, the close spacing of the mirrors segments (approximately 3-9mm), the acute angle between the segment sides (approximately 4 degrees), and the difficult access to the blind gap. Several techniques were considered and tested before selecting the gauge presented here. This paper presents the theory, construction and calibration of the JWST gap gauge that is being used to measure and verify alignment of the OTE primary mirror segments.

This paper examines the use of customized spacers to compensate for symmetric errors in lens systems. Examples of errors amenable to this type of compensation include radius, thickness and index of refraction of lenses and lens-to-lens spacing in lens barrels. Spacers used to separate consecutive lenses are selected after the optics have been fabricated and measured. A method is described for specification of spacer thickness as a function of the errors to be compensated by the spacer. The use of binning to enhance the efficiency of spacer selection is briefly explored.

Other than for spheres the decenter of an aspheric surface cannot be compensated for by further tilting. During tolerancing process of an optical system it is usually assumed that the surface form deviation, the wedge and tilt of a surface have the same origin of coordinates. When manufacturing a lens, the surface form deviation is measured with different machines than the wedge and decenter. Measuring the surface form, the software applies piston, tilt and decenter that differs from the wedge and decenter of the lens. The results of testing this effect with different measurement set-ups and a possible solution will be presented.

As optical designs become more sophisticated and incorporate aspheric and free form surfaces, the need to specify limits on mid-spatial frequency manufacturing errors becomes more critical, particularly as we better understand the effects of these errors on image quality. While there already exist methods based on Fourier analysis to specify these errors in most commercial interferometry software, the method of calculation and the power spectral density (PSD) results remain obscure to many in the optical design and manufacturing field. We suggest that the structure functions (SF) contains the same information as in the Fourier based PSD but in a way that is much more transparent to analysis, interpretation and application as a specification. The units of measure are more familiar and the concept behind the analysis is simpler to understand. Further, the information contained in the structure function (or PSD) allows a complete specification of an optical surface from the finest measurable detail of roughness to the overall figure. We discuss the origin of the structure function in the field of astronomy to describe the effects of air turbulence on image quality, the simple mathematical definition of the structure function and its easy means of calculation and how its results should be scaled depending on the location of the optical surface in a system from pupil to image plane. Finally, we give an example of how to write a specification of an optical surface using the structure function.

A single aspheric or freeform lens contains the elements front and backside surface, edges and maybe other reference surfaces or structures. In this paper is demonstrated how a high precision form tester is capable of measuring these elements utilizing an optical and a tactile probe system. The measurements can be used to determine the orientation or alignment of the different surfaces and structures. Different measuring examples are presented and the influence of the measuring uncertainty from the instrument and the measuring strategy are shown. This information may be useful for tolerancing of lenses and an optimization of the production process.

Optical systems for lithography (projection lens), inspection (micro-objectives) or laser material processing usually have tight specifications regarding focus and wave-front stability. The same is true regarding the field dependent properties. Especially projection lenses have tight specifications on field curvature, magnification and distortion. Unwanted heating either from internal or external sources lead to undesired changes of the above properties. In this work we show an elegant and fast method to analyze the thermal sensitivity using ZEMAX. The key point of this method is using the thermal changes of the lens data from the multi-configuration editor as starting point for a (standard) tolerance analysis. Knowing the sensitivity we can either define requirements on the environment or use it to systematically improve the thermal behavior of the lens. We demonstrate this method for a typical projection lens for which we optimized the thermal field curvature to a minimum.

In this work we proposed a flat null-screen method to test parabolic trough solar collectors (PTSC). The null-screen testing method measures the slope of the test surface and by a numerical integration procedure the shape of the test surface can be obtained. In this work, we show that the test can be sensitive to small surface deformations, such as those caused by sinusoidal deformations with different amplitudes and spatial periods introduced on the PTSC surface. These calculations also show that the attainable theoretical slope accuracy in the rms sense is about 0.34 mrad. This value was obtained under the assumption that is possible to achieve a 1-pixel resolution on the measurement of the position departures of the centroids of the targets of the null-screen.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a 6.5 m diameter, segmented, deployable telescope for cryogenic infrared space astronomy (~40 K). The JWST Observatory architecture includes the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) element that contains four science instruments (SIs), including a guider. The SI and guider units are integrated to the ISIM structure and optically tested at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as an instrument suite using a telescope simulator (Optical Telescope Element SIMulator; OSIM). OSIM is a high-fidelity, cryogenic JWST telescope simulator that features a ~1.5m diameter powered mirror. The SIs are aligned to the flight structure’s coordinate system under ambient, clean room conditions using optomechanical metrology and customized interfaces. OSIM is aligned to the ISIM mechanical coordinate system at the cryogenic operating temperature via internal mechanisms and feedback from alignment sensors and metrology in six degrees of freedom. SI performance, including focus, pupil shear, pupil roll, boresight, wavefront error, and image quality, is evaluated at the operating temperature using OSIM. The comprehensive optical test plans include drafting OSIM source configurations for thousands of exposures ahead of the start of a cryogenic test campaign. We describe how we predicted the performance of OSIM light sources illuminating the ISIM detectors to aide in drafting these optical tests before a test campaign began. We also discuss the actual challenges and successes of those exposure predictions encountered during a test campaign to fulfill the demands of the ISIM optical performance verification.

Interpolating for data sample is required in many image processing methods. For example, in the estimation of displacement which are smaller than one pixel. In the case of displacement calculation in an image sequence using the numerical method, Newton-Rapson is very common to use a linear interpolator due to its simplicity and speed. However this method generates discontinuous functions. Therefore, theoretically it should not be used in combination with Newton-Rapson due to the use of the derivative in the numerical method. This work shows a comparative analysis of different interpolators, along with a comparison between "real world" and image displacements and their relationship. All of this with the purpose of identifying which interpolator offers the most exact approximation in the estimation of displacement calculation.

The study of the influence of the aperture size over the measurements of the L*a*b chromatic coordinates in spectrocolorimeters, in particular, the Macbeth 7000A ® spectrocolorimeter with an illumination/detection geometry d/8°. This is of importance due to the fact that many industry laboratories use it. This study will give us an invaluable insight of the variations in the measurements of the chromatic coordinates in the visible spectrum range regarding to three different aperture sizes; 2,5cm (AL), 1cm (AM), and 0,5cm (AS). The measurements are carried out on 13 Reference Materials (RMs) or diffusers with different hue under the following metrics; including specular component (SCI), excluding ultraviolet component (UVex), D65 illuminant, and 2° observer. The analysis and quantification of the data were done by the use of statistical tools such as variance analysis and Mendel parameters. In this work the analysis of the latter measurements as well as the methodology that quantifies the accuracy and precision of the method, i.e., repeatability and reproducibility, are presented.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a Stage IV ground-based dark energy experiment to map the large-scale structure of the universe and to probe the nature of dark energy. DESI is a massively multiplexed fiber-fed spectrograph, using a 5000-ffber-positioner focal plane assembly to image millions of galaxies. Since these fiber positioners must be positioned to 10-um accuracy, the focal plane must be mapped to micron level precision. We intend to use illuminated fiducials as point sources to accurately calibrate the focal plane surface. In this study we explored using short single-mode fibers as illuminated fiducials. However, despite the advantages of using single-mode fibers, as a near point source, optical fibers have length-dependence behavior: as shorter tend to guide core light into the cladding, which is not ideal for fiducial centroid-measurements. In this paper, we demonstrate that adding tight helical bends to the fibers eliminates unwanted flux in the cladding, improving centroid measurements by more than 50%. This technique has proven with fibers as short as 2-inches, obtaining centroid with at least 0.5-micron precision. This experiment eliminates fiber-length dependence, thus proving the viability of using short single-mode fibers as illuminated fiducials or similar applications