Search

Clifford P. Brangwynne smashed the single-celled embryo between a microscope slide and a thin glass cover slip. Then he peered into the microscope to get a look at the cell, taken from a worm commo...

Owing to the rapidly growing popularity of portable products, there is an increasing demand for lightweight devices with thin displays. Glass substrates contribute substantially to the thickness and weight of display panels, and therefore, it is important to minimize their thickness. However, thin glass substrates are too fragile to be supported on their own and used directly. Thicker glass substrates are therefore used to fabricate display panels, and the substrate thickness is then reduced through etching and surface grinding. This approach is time-consuming, involves the use of highly hazardous chemicals, and produces acidic liquid waste. Thus, countries in which thin panels are produced have experienced severe environmental pollution problems related to their manufacture. In addition to the pollution produced, existing panel-thinning methods cannot satisfy the demand for increasingly thinner panels, and as a result, there is an urgent need for new panel-thinning technologies. This article proposes a novel green temporary bonding and separation method that allows thin glass substrates to be carried to directly produce thin panels. This method makes possible the rapid manufacture of thinner glass display panels for foldable and flexible displays. This method does not use any chemicals and does not produce any polluting waste and thereby contributes to environmental protection.

Transplantation of scaffold-embedded guided neurons has been reported to increase neuronal regeneration following brain injury. However, precise axonal integration between host and transplant neurons to form functional synapses remains a major problem. This study aims to develop a real-time femtosecond (fs) laser penetration on a 4 μm thick thin-glass sheet to promote guided axon outgrowth influenced by molecular gradients in a microfluidic device. The device enables the introduction of the guidance molecule (i.e., netrin-1), neuronal culture, and manipulation by fs laser. After fabricating multiple micro-holes on the thin-glass sheet using fs laser, netrin-1 gradients with radial concentrations are generated in the chamber, affecting axon outgrowth and guidance. A majority of axons (~92%) experiences guided outgrowth with positive angular changes towards netrin-1 gradients. These results demonstrate the capability of the precise and real-time manipulation system based on a fs laser and a microfluidic device to control the growth of neurons.

Glass integrated single-mode waveguides were fabricated by ion-exchange in large panel-size low-cost display glass. Propagation losses of 0.059 dB/cm (at 1550 nm) were achieved and a high process homogeneity across a panel was shown by comparison of 25 waveguides. For the first time, 12 spiral-shaped single-mode waveguides with a length of more than 2 meter were integrated in glass. Furthermore, in-plane evanescent field coupling tests were conducted to achieve first optical functions on large sized glass. To achieve higher integration density and more flexible routing, this work presents a layout-based approach to reduce bend radii without increasing propagation losses. Also without changing process parameters, selectively buried waveguides were manufactured to enable localized areas for out-of-plane coupling from EOCB to flip-chip PIC. These results provide a basis for a novel coupling concept - gradient index surface coupling (GISC).

This work focuses on deposition technologies to be applied for the development and manufacturing of sensors based on ultra-thin glass substrates. The deposition technologies of interest are silkscreen printing, ink-jet printing and physical vapour phase deposition (PVD). In this project, the main target is to develop technologies for flexible sensors to be used for high temperature fuel cells applications. This application case demands for sensors which sustain harsh environmental conditions and which are of very low thickness. Use case conditions involve temperatures above 400 °C and a chemically reactive ambient. The stack design of a fuel cell demands for sensor with a thickness less than 250 μm. Such thin sensors may offer mechanically flexibility which would be of interest for other applications. Furthermore, the aim of the project is to develop manufacturing technologies which can be transferred to roll-to-roll (R2R) processes in future. Finally, not only the deposition of conductor materials but also resistor, insulator and eventually specifically sensitive materials and coatings are subsequent tasks. A use of sensors based on ultra-thin glasses technologies for the described use scenario is not known neither in the state of technology nor in literature. In case of a successful development, such sensor systems would enable an increased fuel cell efficiency due to the ability of in-situ measuring of process parameters. Additionally, ultra-thin flexible sensors which sustain harsh environmental conditions and cheap to produce will be useful in many other applications.

We present an efficient fabrication technique for a glass microdome structure (GMDS) based on the microthermal expansion principle, by inflating the microcavities confined between two thin glass slides. This technique allows controlling the height, diameter, and shape of the GMDS with a uniformity under 5%. The GMDS has a high potential for the application of the microlens and lens array. This inflated hollow, thin glass structure is stable at extreme environments such as in strong acid and high temperature conditions. More importantly, the hollow microdome can be filled with liquid substances to further extend its applications. To verify our method, various GMDSs were fabricated under different process conditions, at different temperatures (540 °C–600 °C), microcavity diameters (300 μm–600 μm), glass thicknesses (120 μm–240 μm), and microcavity etching depths (25 μm–70 μm). The optical features of “empty” and “filled” microcavities were investigated. An empty microcavity functioned as a reducing lens (0.61×–0.9×) (meniscus lens), while a filled microcavity functioned as a magnifying lens (1.31×–1.65×) (biconvex lens). In addition, both lenses worked in strong acid (sulfuric acid) and high temperature (over 300 °C) conditions in which other materials of lenses cannot be used.

We designed and implemented an experimental methodology to investigate gas hydrate formation and growth around a water-guest meniscus in a thin glass capillary, thus mimicking pore-scale processes in sediments. The glass capillary acts as a high-pressure optical cell in a range of supercooling conditions from 0.1 °C, i.e., very close to hydrate dissociation conditions, to ∼35 °C, very near the metastability limit. Liquid or gaseous CO

In recent years, large mother glass sheets with high resolutions have been used for electric devices, such as television panels, personal computer monitors, and cell phones, particularly to reduce manufacturing costs and improve production efficiencies. Accordingly, high-speed inspection processes for detecting defects in thin-film transistor arrays using charge coupled device (CCD) cameras have become very important, and a noncontact transportation technique for the high-speed inspection section is necessary to avoid damage to the glass sheets during inspection processes. Furthermore, a gap of around 100 mm between transportation devices is needed for the inspection area of the CCD cameras to project an inspection light from underneath the glass sheet. This means that the capability to make a large, thin glass sheet jump over the gap is required for the noncontact transportation device. In this paper, an air-levitating transportation device that had air-supply pads with orifice restrictors and vacuum ports was proposed to support a 500 mm square, liquid crystal display glass sheet. The deformation of the glass sheet supported by the proposed transportation device was investigated numerically and experimentally when the glass sheet jumped over the gap between the proposed devices. In addition, the optimum combinations of air supply and vacuum pressures and their areas in the proposed device were studied for obtaining the largest jumping distance of the thin glass sheet. It was found that by properly selecting supply and vacuum pressures and their areas, the largest jumping distance supported by the proposed device could reach approximately 75 mm.

We experimentally investigated the morphology and mechanism of laser-induced damage in the ablation cutting of thin glass sheets with picosecond pulsed lasers and we compared the experimental results to our models. After several passes of laser ablation, we observed two different kinds of damage morphologies on the cross-section of the cut channel. They are distinguished to be the damage region caused by high-density free-electrons and the heat-affected zone due to the heat accumulation, respectively. Furthermore, micro-cracks can be observed on the top surface of the workpiece near the cut edge. The nano-cracks could be generated by high energy free-electrons but opened and developed to be visible micro-cracks by thermal stress generated in the heat-affected zone. The crack length was proportional to the volume of heat-affected zone. Heat-affected-zone and visible-cracks free conditions of glass cutting were achieved by controlling the repetition rate and spatial overlap of laser pulses.

We analyzed a process to cut thin glass by internal scribing and mechanical breaking using a femtosecond laser Bessel beam. The effect of process parameters on the edge strength of the cut sample was investigated for borosilicate glass sheets of thickness 100 μm. The ranges of laser pulse energy and density of internal modifications for the scribing and breaking process were identified. During mechanical breaking process, separation was easier when the laser-scribed sample was split from the back surface when the pulse energy was low and from the front surface when it was high. The maximum edge strength was obtained at the lowest laser pulse energy that can split the sample properly. When the internal modification was too weak, the glass sample was not properly separated, so both roughness and cutting-path deviation increased. At the optimum condition, the front-side and back-side edge strength was 370 MPa (67% of the strength of the mirror like surface) and 400 MPa (72%), respectively. This technology to cut ultra-thin glass sheets without impairing the original strength will have numerous applications.

We report an on-chip single-cell multidirectional observation method by accurately control the ultra-thin glass chamber rotation angles over the microscope. This technique enables to establish the multidirectional visual accesses to the target cell that captured inside of the thin glass chamber. The ultra-thin glass chamber has advantages of highly transparent, compact, thin wall, less invasive and all-closed structures efficiently reduces the risks of contamination during the observation. The fabricated thin glass chambers diameters were different from 1.5 to 3.5 mm which formed on the 200 μm glass slides.

Electronics industry has been very successful in finding size and cost economic packaging forms and strategies. Such standardized packages have not been established for embedding optical or electrical-optical chips, yet. This short proceedings article summarizes some photonic and electronic-photonic assembly realizations and packaging concepts currently pursued at Fraunhofer IZM, in an collaboration with Technical University Berlin.

In this article we propose integration of optics and electronics using thin panel glass. Several interfacing and integration levels of optical sub-assemblies in electronic systems realized in exemplary system assemblies or suggested conceptually will be described. They consist of proven or currently developed system components and assembly processes on panel level production machinery. Laser-cutting of panel glass enables for fast manufacturing of optical components with on-demand extensions, with complex beam paths and high stability as required e.g. in optical interferometers. Solutions are presented, demonstrating industrial thin glass parts processed from large glass panels to be a very versatile and efficient development and rapidproduction platform.

The internal surface temperature of windows is not uniform with a significant drop in temperature at the edge-of-glass region. This in turn can lead to heat loss and air humidity condensation, especially at the lower part of a window. In this paper the way to increase the interior pane surface temperature profile by inserting additional small thin glass pane is presented. A two-dimensional CFD simulation of a standard two pane glazing and glazing with an additional glass pane is presented along with results of measurements obtained by a thermographic camera.

Recent developments in hole formations in glass, metalizations in the holes, and glass to glass sealing are enabling a new generation of designs to achieve higher performance while leveraging a wafer level packaging approach for low cost packaging solutions. The need for optical transparency, smoother surfaces, hermetic vias, and a reliable platform for multiple semiconductors is growing in the areas of MEMS, Biometric Sensors, Medical, Life Sciences, and Micro Display packaging. This paper will discuss the types of glass suitable for packaging needs, hole creation methods and key specifications required for through glass vias (TGV's). Creating redistribution layers (RDL) or circuit layers on both sides of large thin glass wafer poses several challenges, which this paper will discuss, as well as, performance and reliability of the circuit layers on TGV wafers or substrates. Additionally, there are glass-to-glass welding techniques that can be utilized in conjunction with TGV wafers with RDL, which provide ambient glass-to-glass attachments of lids and standoffs, which do not outgas during thermal cycle and allow the semiconductor devices to be attached first without having to reflow at lower temperatures. Fabrication challenges, reliability testing results, and performance of this semiconductor packaging system will be discussed in this paper.

We investigated the morphology and mechanism of laser-induced damage in the ablation cutting of thin glass sheets with picosecond laser. Two kinds of damage morphologies observed on the cross-section of the cut channel, are caused by high-density free-electrons and the temperature accumulation, respectively. Notches and micro-cracks can be observed on the top surface of the sample near the cut edge. The surface micro-cracks were related to high energy free-electrons and also the heat-affected zone. Heat-affected-zone and visible-cracks free conditions of glass cutting were achieved by controlling the repetition rate and spatial overlap of laser pulses.

Recently, the development of displays requires large, thin glass substrates, and air film conveyors equipped with porous pads have been developed to transport the substrates in a noncontact state. In this study, a contactless air film system with aligned porous pads is proposed. Experiments and analysis of its basic characteristics are conducted. First, it is confirmed that the flow rate characteristics of the porous pads can be represented by a modified Forchheimer equation with the determined permeability and inertial coefficient. Then, a theoretical model based on the Reynolds equation is established to analyze the film pressure distribution. The results indicate a parabola-like shape distributed along the radial direction in the porous area and an approximately linear curve in the periphery area. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate that the bearing force and static stiffness increase if the clearance decreased with a given flow rate. Finally, a numerical calculation performed by solving the coupling equation of elasticity and the modified Reynolds equation shows an approximate quadratic shape in the deformation, and the experimental results supported this to a certain extent.

We demonstrate a fluorescent microscopy through an optical cannula (220µm diameter glass needle) for deep tissue imaging. We first show sample images captured in thin sections for the proof of principle. Then cannula is inserted deep into dissected brain tissue which captured high resolution images of microglia cells.

Damage-free chamfering method for strengthening a glass edge was introduced and its effect on the edge property was discussed in detail. The chamfered surface was evaluated using an optical microscope, a confocal LSM, and a birefringence measurement system. The mechanical properties were characterized by measuring hardness, Young's modulus, and bending strength. The results revealed that the cut edge of 0.55t thin glass sheet containing median cracks and chips was exfoliated uniformly to a thickness of 200 μm, and a smooth edge surface was created (Ra = 0.03 μm). We also reported that the chamfered surface had a compressive stress enabling hardness and Young's modulus increase, and the edge strength improved from 117 to 199 MPa.

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with touch-screen capabilities are becoming increasingly popular. When a user pushes a screen too hard, the cell gap changes and causes a blur (known as touch mura) around the push location. This paper uses finite element analysis to predict the change in cell gap when an LCD panel is subjected to a touch force.

This paper provides general guidelines and watch outs while conducting strength testing on LCD glass. Importance of failure modes, large deflections, membrane stresses, failure locations, device design, fatigue, fractography and strain gauging are discussed in this paper. It also gives an example on why panels cannot be treated as monolithic glass when calculating the strength.

Fraunhofer IZM and Technische Universitat Berlin in a collaboration show a versatile assembly platform for electro-optical and micro-optical components made from laser-structured thin glass with sizes of 18 × 24 inches (450 × 300 mm2) and larger for economical rapid prototyping as well as automated serial production.

Coloured glass glitter is made from thin glass flakes and used for decoration purposes. Published analytical data mainly originates from restoration sites in different countries and is still fragmentary. Samples are often contaminated or corroded, which makes it difficult to evaluate the results, particularly when these were obtained by near-surface techniques. For this investigation, six types of coloured glass glitter from an eighteenth century material collection from Cambridge, England were investigated by optical microscopy and electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analysis in order to obtain a wide range of data, which can be used to examine the production techniques of eighteenth century coloured lead glass glitter. They have been stored in a wooden cabinet for 300 years and were sampled directly from the original small paper boxes. Each sample contained glass flakes of different sizes and thicknesses and even different colours. All flakes were made of lead glass with lead contents in the range between 18 to over 70 wt%. One group showed mixed alkali compositions, probably from potash, lime and nitre, the other contained sodium, potassium and calcium oxides only in trace, if at all. Colouring elements were cobalt, copper, iron, manganese and gold resulting in blue, green, yellow and violet. Although the colouring elements resemble mostly contemporary recipes as known from Neri and his translators, the glass composition is clearly different and differs also from other lead glass compositions from that time. This is a first indication of the production technology of eighteenth century glass glitter. A wide range of analytical data obtained from early eighteenth century glass flakes is presented here and is discussed with regard to the composition of lead glasses, colouring elements, and manufacture details. Lead containing glass glitter is often found in restoration sites, but their manufacture is still waiting to be thoroughly investigated. Almost nothing is known about its historical manufacture. The study provides a wide range of data, which allow to further increase our knowledge on composition and manufacture of these often used decoration materials from the eighteenth century.

This paper demonstrates, for the first time, 3D integrated passive device (IPD) diplexers on ultra-thin glass substrates for wireless local area network (WLAN) application in mobile devices. The designed LC-based diplexer was composed of a low-band filter and a high-band filter, built on ultra-thin glass substrates. The two filters were designed on each side of the glass substrate and interconnected by through-package-vias (TPVs) to form a 3D IPD. Ultra-thin and low-loss dryfilm dielectrics were utilized for improved electrical performance as well as to achieve high-density of passives integration. The demonstrated 3D IPD diplexer is 3-4X thinner than current LTCC devices, with lateral dimensions of 1.1mm x 1.3mm in a thickness of 200µm resulting in a low insertion loss of less than 1dB for pass bands and more than 24dB stop-band rejection.

With the market requirements, glass plates used in flat panel display must be large and thin. In thin glass plates, thickness uniformity has been a key standard in quality identification. To response the requests of industries and manufacturers to large-size glass plate in on-line real-time inspection, the authors recently developed a large-area full-field thickness measurement method named angular incidence interferometry (AII). AII is based on thin film interferometry and uses the point-expanded laser light to illuminate the specimen with an incident angle to generate the particular interference fringes. Due to the regular correlation between the interference fringes, the full-field thickness distribution can be obtained from only one interference fringe pattern (IFP).

Modelling of large-scale natural (thermally-generated) turbulent flows (such as the turbulent convection in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, or Sun) is approached in laboratory experiments in the simplified model system called the Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC). We present preliminary measurements of vertical temperature profiles in the cell with the height of 4:7 m, 7:15m in diameter, obtained at the Barrel of Ilmenau (BOI), the worldwide largest experimental setup to study highly turbulent RBC, newly equipped with the Luna ODiSI-B optical fibre system. In our configuration, the system permits to measure the temperature with a high spatial resolution of 5mm along a very thin glass optical fibre with the length of 5m and seems to be perfectly suited for measurement of time series of instantaneous vertical temperature profiles. The system was supplemented with the two Pt100 vertically movable probes specially designed by us for reference temperature profiles measurements.

We report the optimization design and experimental results for the imaging properties of a photon sieve, which is formed on a layer of metal film supported by a thin glass substrate. As an example, we considered a micro-optical element with parameters of diameter D = 50 mm, 3,564,290 hole number, and 10 mu m minimum micro-hole diameter, which was designed and fabricated by means of surface machining technique in the lab. To evaluate its imaging performance, both on-axis and off-axis imaging experiments were carried out using the element. Compared to a Fresnel zone plate lens with the same feature size, the photon sieve has super imaging performance. Some quantitative analyses and initial qualitative explanations were given for the imaging characteristics. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Previously used mirror technologies are not able to fulfil the requirements of future X-ray telescopes due to challenging requests from the scientific community. Consequently new technical approaches for X-ray mirror production are under development. In Europe the technical baseline for the planned X-ray observatory ATHENA is the radical new approach of silicon pore optics. NASA´s recently launched NuSTAR mission uses segmented mirrors shells made from thin bended glasses, successfully demonstrating the feasibility of the glass forming technology for X-ray mirrors. For risk mitigation also in Europe the hot slumping of thin glasses is being developed as an alternative technology for lightweight X-ray telescopes. The high precision mirror manufacturing requires challenging technical developments; several design trades and trend-setting decisions need to be made and are discussed within this paper. Some new technical and economic aspects of the intended glass mirror serial production are also studied within the recently started interdisciplinary project INTRAAST, an acronym for "industry transfer of astronomical mirror technologies". The goal of the project, embedded in a cooperation of the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics and the University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg, is to master the challenge of producing thin mirror shells for future X-ray telescopes. As a first project task the development of low stress coatings for thin glass mirror substrates have been started, the corresponding technical approach and first results are presented.

High-resolution, high throughput optics for x-ray astronomy entails fabrication of well-formed mirror segments and their integration with arc-second precision. In this paper, we address issues of aligning and bonding thin glass mirrors with negligible additional distortion. Stability of the bonded mirrors and the curing of epoxy used in bonding them were tested extensively. We present results from tests of bonding mirrors onto experimental modules, and on the stability of the bonded mirrors tested in x-ray. These results demonstrate the fundamental validity of the methods used in integrating mirrors into telescope module, and reveal the areas for further investigation. The alignment and integration methods are applicable to the astronomical mission concept such as STAR-X, the Survey and Time-domain Astronomical Research Explorer.

In the pursuit to better understand the mechanisms of perovskite solar cells we performed Raman and photoluminescence measurements of free-standing CH3NH3PbI3 films, comparing dark with working conditions. The films, grown on a glass substrate and sealed by a thin glass coverslip, were measured subsequent to dark and white-light pretreatments. The extremely slow changes we observe in both the Raman and photoluminescence cannot be regarded as electronic processes, which are much faster. Thus, the most probable explanation is of slow photoinduced structural changes. The CH3NH3PbI3 transformation between the dark and the light structures is reversible, with faster rates for the changes under illumination. The results seem to clarify several common observations associated with solar cell mechanisms, like performance improvement under light soaking. More important is the call for solar-cell-related investigation of CH3NH3PbI3 to take the photoinduced structural changes into consideration when measuring and interpreting the results.

Surface modification was performed on high-pressure densified silica glass by CO laser irradiation. Microbumps were formed on the silica glass surface due to the relaxation of the compacted structure by the irradiation. The relaxed area reached a depth of about 40 µm, and the volume expansion estimated from the relaxed area was consistent with the volume expansion at the surface. The microbumps were arrayed at a minimum interval of 15 µm, which acted as a microlens array. Moreover, microbumps were formed successfully on both sides of the thin glass plate by irradiation from one side.

5-(4-Nitrophenyl)-2,4-pentadien-1-al (NPPD) can be used for chemical tracking in crime scene investigations. A color test kit for NPPD was developed for use by non-scientists, such as police officers, in the field. However, this kit had problems, including contact with concentrated HCl, and instability of the reagent (naphthoresorcinol methanol solution) used in the first step of color development. To overcome these problems, in the present study, a field kit was developed with the concentrated HCl sealed in a vial so it did not contact the operator. A glass tube with two compartments was used to separate the naphthoresorcinol and methanol before use. When the color test was conducted, a cotton swab was inserted into the tube. Before insertion, the cotton was used to collect a sample from a suspect that had been in contact with a surface sprayed with a 1% NPPD methanol solution. Insertion of the cotton swab broke the thin glass that separated the methanol and naphthoresorcinol, and any NPPD on the swab reacted with the naphthoresorcinol methanol solution. The cotton swab was then pushed further to break the glass separating the concentrated HCl. A red color then developed if NPPD was present on the cotton swab. For testing the kit, NPPD was sprayed in an area where a crime was expected to occur. This kit will be useful for detecting a contact with or near a crime scene, because samples do not require analysis in a forensic science laboratory. Instead, the results can be confirmed at the scene of crime.

The two-point bend test has been used extensively for optical fiber strength and fatigue measurements. This paper extends the theory of 2-point bending to thin glass substrates. The key advantages of the 2-point bend test are 1) the simplicity of a test fixture and its operation, 2) the uniformity of a bend stress along the width of a substrate, 3) the inverse relationship between a bend stress and parallel plate spacing, and 4) the non-contact bending.

Inner marking was performed using harmonics of a solid-state laser. A Gaussian-like profile LD-pumped Nd: YLF laser was employed to generate the second harmonic (523nm) pulses. When the laser beam was sharply focused inside the transparent material, the phenomena of optical damage or optical breakdown occurred inside the material. Highly controlled optical damage formation made it possible to produce machinereadable marking inside the thin glass substrate without any surface damage. The mechanism of inner marking is discussed. Inner glass marking is suitable for clean industrial marking processes.

Particle−particle and particle−wall capillary interactions were measured as a function of the separation distance. The “particles” were vertical thin glass cylinders and/or small glass spheres, protruding from an air/liquid interface. The particles attract each other due to the overlapping of the menisci formed around each of them. The force of interaction is detected by a sensitive torsion microbalance. It is based on counterbalancing the moment of a couple of forces, acting between two pairs of particles, by the torsion moment of a thin platinum wire. By varying the wire diameter, we accessed forces differing by several orders of magnitude, from about 5 dyn at small separation between the particles down to 0.001 dyn at large separation. The smallest force was measured with two cylinders of diameters about 300 μm. For two spheres (diameters 1.2 mm) we obtained difference in the forces corresponding to different heights of protrusion from the liquid surface. For interacting sphere and glass cylinder the f...

Through silicon via (TSV) containing interposers have been widely discussed and applied to Three-Dimensional Stacked Integrated Circuit (3D-IC) integration. Advanced silicon interposers could be derived from three essential technologies: frontside multi-level-metallization, through-substrate-via and backside metallization. The approaches used for these technologies depend upon the application requirements, especially for the TSV technology. Process development, optimization, and cost still remain as the main issue to the industry.

Effective area requirements for the large X-ray mirror of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) are about 3 m2 at 1keV, 0.65 m2 at 6 keV and 150 cm2 at 30 keV. Because of its large dimension, the telescope cannot be realized as a monolithic structure but rather it requires the integration and assembly in the telescope optical bench of a number of basic module units, called X-ray Optical Unit (XOU). We are currently studying a method for the production of these basic units that is based on the slumping technology for the production of thin glass segmented mirrors. It foresees the implementation of a stacking integration concept based on the use of reinforcing ribs connecting the glass segments in order to create very stiff structures. This paper reports on the last design of the single optical module and describe the results of FEM analyses that show how it is possible to use an innovative approach to the integration of the slumped glass foils.

The 600 μm thick transflective display for mobile systems presented consists of a reflective plastic substrate FLCD for daytime and an OLED with thin glass plates and controlled light-emitting segments as backlight for darkness. A memory for addressing the OLED saves the second polarizer of transmissive displays. A thin film battery feeding the OLED lasts more than 2 years.

At some stages in the manufacture of liquid crystal display panels, thin glass sheets are stacked horizontally in cassettes. The sheets sag to gravity; with the ever-increasing sheet size and decreasing sheet thickness, the amount of sag has been increasing. Excessive sag is undesirable, since it limits the number of sheets that can be tracked in a cassette of given height. In this note, I describe some support designs that lead to reduced sag.

The next large x-ray astrophysics mission launched will likely include soft x-ray spectroscopy as a primary capability. A requirement to fulfill the science goals of such a mission is a large-area x-ray telescope focusing sufficient x-ray flux to perform high-resolution spectroscopy with reasonable observing times. The IXO soft x-ray telescope effort in the US is focused on a tightly nested, thin glass, segmented mirror design. Fabrication of the glass segments with the required surface accuracy is a fundamental challenge; equally challenging will be the alignment of the ~7000 secondary mirror segments with their corresponding primary mirrors, and co-alignment of the mirror pairs. We have developed a system to perform this alignment using a combination of a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and a double-pass Hartmann test alignment system. We discuss the technique, its ability to correct low-order mirror errors, and results of a recent pair alignment including progress toward the required alignment accuracy of < 2 arcseconds. We then look forward toward its scalability to the task of building the IXO telescope.

As NASA's next major space X-ray observatory, the Constellation-X mission (Bookbinder et al. 2008) requires mirror assemblies with unprecedented characteristics that cannot be provided by existing optical technologies. In the past several years, the project has supported a vigorous mirror technology development program. This program includes the fabrication of lightweight mirror segments by slumping commercially available thin glass sheets, the support and mounting of these thin mirror segments for accurate metrology, the mounting and attachment of these mirror segments for the purpose of X-ray tests, and development of methods for aligning and integrating these mirror segments into mirror assemblies. This paper describes our efforts and developments in these areas.

The precisely shaped glass sheets and Si wafers are generally considered as the most promising substrates for future large space astronomical X-ray telescopes. Both approaches have demonstrated promising results obtained in the course of last years. In this contribution, we report on continued systematic efforts and analysis in precise shaping of thin glass sheets as well as Si wafers. New results will be briefly presented and discussed. For Si wafers, recent efforts focus also on improving the intrinsic quality of the slices to better meet the high requirements of future space projects.

We present the concepts behind current alignment and integration techniques for testing a Constellation-X primary-secondary mirror segment pair in an x-ray beam line test. We examine the effects of a passive mount on thin glass x-ray mirror segments, and the issues of mount shape and environment on alignment. We also investigate how bonding and transfer to a permanent housing affects the quality of the final image, comparing predicted results to a full x-ray test on a primary secondary pair.

We propose a thin glass vibrator which is installed with micro-ball lens in PC connector as a photothermal vibrating type sensor. The vibrator was fabricated from a cover glass with accuracy of about 50 μm by ultrasound. In deposition process using an ion sputtering apparatus, continuous measurements of the resonance frequencies were possible without adjustments of an optical system. Resonance frequencies of the vibrator with 5 mm in length and 2 mm in width decreased from 3.280 kHz to 3.243 kHz during deposition thickness increase of 500 nm of Au. Possibility of practical use of a low price optical sensor was shown for measurement of depositon thickness.