Surface shape error modeling in optical machining and tolerance analysis of mosaic aperture telescopes

Abstract

In the simulation and tolerance analysis of mirror-based optical systems, the magnitude distribution of the surface shape error of each mirror must be established under certain values. Thus, in this study, several large-diameter meter-scale spherical mirrors were statistically processed, and a surface shape error model was constructed to control the RMS, PV, and PV/RMS of the surface shape error in Monte Carlo experiments. The findings show an improved system qualification probability from 69.2% to 99.4%. The proposed method considers the maximum evaluation of the sub-wavefront that eliminates the final co-phase adjustment for individual segments.