PFI-RP: Measurement system for high speed and precision manufacturing

Award ID: 1918260

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation-Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project is the development and commercialization of an on-machine measurement (also called metrology) system that can increase the economic competitiveness of the United States in precision manufacturing, or the ability to machine complex components and parts with low margins for error. This project will enhance the ability to efficiently machine highly engineered parts, solving a common costly and labor-intensive technical hurdle facing many industries including optics, additive or 3D manufacturing, and other sectors with highly demanding machining requirements. This project will also create new and broader collaborations with industry, enhance partnerships between academia and industry, and build infrastructure for research and education. The proposed activities will provide next generation leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship with firsthand experience in technology development, translation, and commercialization. In addition, this work will expand the participation of women and students from underrepresented groups in innovation, technology translation, and entrepreneurship. The proposed project is expected to advance high-throughput precision manufacturing. Currently the key technical bottleneck in diamond turning and other high-precision fabrication is the metrology process used for quality control. Existing practices to center a tool and to ensure the quality of the fabricated workpiece are very time-consuming, requiring several iterations to remove the workpiece from the machine for offline measurements and then to remount workpiece onto the machine. The removal and remount processes often introduce additional manufacturing errors. The proposed compact, snapshot, dual-mode, multi-wavelength interferometric system will incorporate several unique techniques to significantly improve speed and manufacturing accuracy. Specifically, a polarization-based multi-wavelength snapshot technique will enable the real-time measurement of machined surfaces with minimum environmental impact. A deep-learning-based phase unwrapping technique will eliminate the time-consuming phase unwrapping problem in interferometric measurement. The unique configuration ensures a very compact interferometric system that can be integrated seamlessly into existing equipment for in-situ metrology. The new fabrication process with real-time, in-situ metrology is estimated to improve efficiency by 30% or greater in tool alignment, and another 50% or greater in surface metrology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Samir Iqbal