We present our recent advancement in the development of Ion Beam Figuring (IBF) equipment. IBF is an alternative way to correct shape errors of optical surfaces, super-smooth the surface or modify the shape of optical reflective or refractive elements in a deterministic way.
For high precision surfaces traditional polishing and error correcting methods, such as MRF come to their limits due to the fact that a physical contact between the tool and the surface is needed. With IBF at the contrary there is no physical contact, it is a pure beam–surface interaction and no additional errors or subsurface damages were created. We present results of IBF processes and show how we can make the IBF most economical in the sense of shortening the process time. The obtained high precision, smooth surfaces are very suitable to be coated using our IBS technology for very dense, extremely high reflective, high damage threshold coatings. We present results on our current technological progress.
Steffen Gürtler studied physics and received his doctoral degree from the University of Leipzig (Germany) in 1993. He was focusing on optical investigations of III-V semiconductor structures at high excitation. Part of the work was done at the Ecolé Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée. He was then joining that research team at EPFL as a post-doc until 1996. Later he took a position as an invited researcher at the National Taiwan University, Departement of Electrical Engineering, working and overseeing several projects including Optical Coherence Tomography, Optical integrated circuits and Laser induced processes. He later join Manz Automation and establish their Asian subsidiary in Taiwan with the main focus on the automation of display glass coating equipment. In 2001 he founded the OPTEG GmbH in Leipzig (Germany) and led it as the CEO until 2018 when it became a part of Bühler Alzenau GmbH as the Center of Competence (CoC). His current role is the Head of Technology and Bussiness Development of the CoC.
Christian Kettmann studied general computer science with diploma (FH) at the HTW Dresden. During the course of his studies, he completed an internship at Opteg GmbH and went on to work for the company as a full-time employee. Since Opteg was bought by Bühler Alzenau, he has been active for Bühler as a Sales & Process Engineer.
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