Fabrication of Aspherical Ultraprecise Surfaces using a Tube (FAUST)

Abstract

A novel fabrication technique for the generation of rotationally symmetric aspherical surfaces has been developed in a cooperation between the two upmentioned institutes at Delft. A machine tool based on this method is currently being prototyped. In this paper we will describe the characteristics of this method. FAUST (Fabrication of Aspherical Ultraprecise Surfaces using a Tube; Patent pending) is a line contact method for the generation of rotationally symmetric optical surfaces. It employs a selfcorrecting process and enables the use of loose abrasive ductile grinding [Gol91] and subsequent bowl-feed polishing [Win92] for the generation of both convex and concave aspherical surfaces of revolution.