What's it about?

OptiDomes are six-inch diameter concentric F/0.53 spherical fused silica domes manufactured by Optimax Systems Inc. The purpose of these domes is to act as a standard for metrology testing of various testing methods for measuring the surface quality, mechanical attributes and/or the transmitted wave front error of hemispherical/spherical domes. Each of the OptiDomes was fabricated to pre-specified quality levels including domes that have induced errors. This paper gives additional manufacturing information, detailed handling instructions, procurement information as well as initial measurement results.

As the need for concentric hemispherical/spherical domes increases, so does the need for production environment precision metrology. The OptiDome was created as a tool available to industry to develop emerging technologies and to adapt existing technologies to the unique challenges inherent in dome metrology. Attributes to be measured include concentricity of inner vs. outer surfaces, full aperture irregularity interferometry and full aperture transmitted wavefront measurement. Measurement methods include but are not limited to contact and non-contact thickness measurement, stitching interferometry, and large aperture interferometry.