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Title: Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent

Abstract

A method and system of imagewise etching the surface of a substrate, such as thin glass, in a parallel process. The substrate surface is placed in contact with an etchant solution which increases in etch rate with temperature. A local thermal gradient is then generated in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process. In one embodiment, the local thermal gradient is a local heating gradient produced at selected addresses chosen from an indexed array of addresses. The activation of each of the selected addresses is independently controlled by a computer processor so as to imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates. Moreover, etching progress is preferably concurrently monitored in real time over the entire surface area by an interferometer so as to deterministically control the computer processor to image-wise figure the substrate surface where needed.

Inventors:
Issue Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1175476
Patent Number(s):
6936182
Application Number:
10/087,493
Assignee:
The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA)
Patent Classifications (CPCs):
C - CHEMISTRY C03 - GLASS C03C - CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GLASSES, GLAZES, OR VITREOUS ENAMELS
DOE Contract Number:  
W-7405-ENG-48
Resource Type:
Patent
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats

Rushford, Michael C. Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent. United States: N. p., 2005. Web.
Rushford, Michael C. Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent. United States.
Rushford, Michael C. Tue . "Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1175476.
@article{osti_1175476,
title = {Method and system for optical figuring by imagewise heating of a solvent},
author = {Rushford, Michael C.},
abstractNote = {A method and system of imagewise etching the surface of a substrate, such as thin glass, in a parallel process. The substrate surface is placed in contact with an etchant solution which increases in etch rate with temperature. A local thermal gradient is then generated in each of a plurality of selected local regions of a boundary layer of the etchant solution to imagewise etch the substrate surface in a parallel process. In one embodiment, the local thermal gradient is a local heating gradient produced at selected addresses chosen from an indexed array of addresses. The activation of each of the selected addresses is independently controlled by a computer processor so as to imagewise etch the substrate surface at region-specific etch rates. Moreover, etching progress is preferably concurrently monitored in real time over the entire surface area by an interferometer so as to deterministically control the computer processor to image-wise figure the substrate surface where needed.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2005},
month = {8}
}

Works referenced in this record:

Optical surfaces figured by laser-controlled chemical reactions
journal, April 1978


Laser - Assisted Chemical Etching
conference, June 1984