Boston Micromachines Wins Grant

!%Boston Micromachines Corp.%! of Cambridge, Mass., has received a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research Program contract from NASA to support space-based imaging research. The Phase I project is for the development of a high-resolution, fault-tolerant microelectromechanical deformable mirror technology that will fill a gap in NASA’s road map for future coronagraphic observatories. The company plans to implement two complementary modifications to the manufacturing process: It will develop a drive electronics approach to limit actuator electrical current density generated to prevent permanent failure when a short-time-frame, single-fault failure occurs, and it will modify the actuator design to mitigate failure resulting from adhesion between contacting surfaces of the actuator flexure and fixed base. The company provides mirror products for commercial adaptive optics systems.