9512171 Dow This award provides funding to acquire two measuring instruments at the Precision Engineering Center at North Carolina State University. The equipment to be purchased includes an RTH Form Talysurf mechanical profilometer with an extended vertical range of 6mm and a resolution of 10nm, and an optical profilometer system consisting of a Zyro Maxim GP/New View 100 Surface Analyzer and a GPIxps Laser Interferometer with a 2 mm field of view and 1A resolution over a 100 micron vertical range. The Precision Engineering Center conducts research and educates students in the area of high-technology precision manufacturing. Research conducted at the facility encompasses measurement and fabrication of optical, electronic, and mechanical devices where high precision is required. Projects include diamond turning and the fabrication of ceramic and glass surfaces. These instruments will improve research on a number of ongoing projects ilvolving optical and structural components in glass and ceramic materials, diamond Turing of brittle materials for infrared optics, measurement of surface finish and wear of diamond films for tool coatings and tribological surfaces, and measurement of rotationally asymmetric surfaces for electronic and optoelectronic spherical optics.
