High-precision microchannel plate blanks have been used in a series of space research projects, and new versions have been developed for forthcoming Nasa and Esa missions
Selected for their expertise in manufacturing complex optics, Optical Surfaces has been the key subcontractor to Photonis for profiling and polishing batches of high-precision microchannel plate blanks that have been used in a series of space research projects.
For many years, Photonis has been the leading supplier of microchannel plate devices for the Nasa and Esa (European Space Administration) space research community.
Microchannel plates form part of Photonis's core business of design, development and production of devices for detecting and amplifying very low levels of radiation.
In co-operation with space science laboratories worldwide, new plate versions are developed for forthcoming Nasa and Esa missions.
Recently Nasa presented an award to Photonis for its outstanding efforts in developing and providing high-performance microchannel plates for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Optical Surfaces has been able to develop the proprietary production techniques that deliver the required ultra-high precision surface finish to plates in batch quantities.
Large square or complex shaped plates offer particular production challenges including maintaining tight control of the physical dimensions (thickness and parallelism) and also avoiding staining that is easily introduced during the polishing process.
Production approved to ISO 9002 all profiled and polished microchannel plate blanks leaving the Optical Surfaces's production facility are quality certified by topographic and interferometric analysis.
Photonis microchannel plates contain many millions of tiny glass fibres fused together into a 1mm thick plate of dimensions up to 10cm x 15cm.
Looking out into the universe, the microchannel plate picks up UV or X-ray photons from distant constellations of galaxies, transferring the photon image into an amplified electron image that can be analysed by the spacecraft computer.
The combination of high efficiency of design, manufacture and polishing have made microchannel plates from Photonis/Optical Surfaces the preferred detector element in single-photon UV and X-ray space imaging.
