Iris AO, Inc. News Archive

2017 ARCHIVED NEWS

Iris AO joins the High-Contrast Imaging Balloon System (HiCIBaS) team, to fly a DM in near space conditions. During the ten hour stratospheric balloon flight, an Iris AO PTT111 DM will be used to correct dynamic aberrations for the high-contrast imaging system.

Rigaut et al. from the Australian National University and Zamkotsian et al. from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille present to papers at the AO4ELT5 conference on PTT111 performance from room temperature down to 160 K. Spoiler alert – they work great!

Come see Iris AO in the Laser2000 booth B3.103 at the 2017 Laser World of Photonics in Munich Germany. We will debut a new software release of our image-based sensorless AO system working with our MEMS-based PTT111 DM.

Iris AO engineers complete fabrication mirror and actuator wafers for the next generation PTT393 DMs. The nearly 1000 actuator MEMS DMs will be used in high-contrast imaging systems for NASA, ground-based astronomy, and high-end microscopy systems.

The Iris AO team welcomes you to Photonics West and BiOS 2017 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco! Please stop by booth 8923 at BiOS or stop by booth 2635 at Photonics West and come talk to us about your AO needs.

Iris AO sponsors the 14th Advanced Imaging Methods Workshop in Berkeley CA. The workshop is one of the largest on the west coast and brings together world-class researchers and Nobel Laureates from a wide variety of fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and optics.

2016 ARCHIVED NEWS

Iris AO welcomes additional MEMS process engineers and expands its facilities to make room for a additional clean room space. The additional hires and new clean room more than doubles fabrication throughput and increases operational efficiency.

Iris AO releases Externally Addressed Playback (EAP) feature. EAP allows for the instantaneous lookup and application of previously stored deformable mirror (DM) shapes. EAP can be used for scanning systems, optimization algorithms, and compensating for aberrations in images. Shapes are stored within the driver box and can be commanded to the DM via a hardware interface that is addressed much like computer memory.

Iris AO teams up with its UK distribution partner, Laser 2000, to host table #731 at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation. Iris AO deformable mirrors (DM) were referenced in 11 different papers at the event. Iris AO’s own paper focused on the long-term stability and temperature variability of Iris AO DMs.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awards a Phase I SBIR to Iris AO to develop a 3045 actuator (1015 segment) MEMS DM.

Iris AO welcomes a new distributor to expand into the Asian market. T.E.M. Inc. will handle sales of our deformable mirror and AO system products in Japan. Check our contacts page for more information.

Iris AO Founder and CEO, Dr. Michael Helmbrecht presents a paper at CLEO Conference 2016: Improvements to power handling and longevity culminate in a successful 1000-hour operational testing of a 3.5 mm aperture PTT111 MEMS DM while exposed to up to 16W of UV laser power. Such advancements in MEMS deformable mirrors (DM) have made them suitable for use in industrial laser systems to improve beam quality and beam-steering/shaping.

The Iris AO team welcomes you to Photonics West and BiOS 2016 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco! Please stop by booth 8738 at BiOS anytime from February 13 to February 14. Or, stop by booth 326 at Photonics West anytime from February 16 to February 18. You’re also invited to join us at 2:30pm on Tuesday, February 16 and Wednesday, February 17 for Improving your image with Iris AO adaptive optics, one of many top tier technical presentations Edmund Optics will be hosting at booth 1615.

Iris AO successfully completes all of the design and concept demonstration milestones for a 3045-actuator MEMS deformable mirror (DM). This NASA Phase I SBIR research demonstrated field-stitching of a critical layer using high-resolution DUV lithography and completed conceptual designs for packaging and test systems for the 1015 segment piston-tip-tilt (PTT) DM.

2015 ARCHIVED NEWS

Iris AO Partners with Edmund Optics for International Distribution of a new PTT111 Deformable Mirror System with Custom Window Coating.

Meet us at the 10th International Workshop on Adaptive Optics of Industry and Medicine (AOIM 2015) in Padova, Italy June 15-19 and the Laser World of Photonics in Munich, Germany June 22 – 25.

We are excited to announce the release of Iris AO Installation Disk version 1.0.2.4. This latest version of our DM software features a standalone DM Controller GUI, a .NET API, and an updated manual for all of our PTT Deformable Mirror Devices. Read the full release here. Also, see our June 2015 quarterly newsletter for more information on our distributors and new devices.

We're continuing our expansion in Europe and throughout the Laser 2000 network with the arrival of Laser 2000 (UK) as our new distributor in the United Kingdom. Read more here.

Check out our Feb 2015 quarterly newsletter to find out what has been going on at Iris AO: our partnership with optical solutions provider, LightTrans and several emerging studies in microscopy and biological imaging presented at BIOS Expo.

Meet us at SPIE Photonics West booth #434 and BIOS Expo booth #8434 in San Francisco, CA, USA on 7-12 February 2015.

2014 ARCHIVED NEWS

Check out our Oct 2014 quarterly newsletter to find out what has been going on at Iris AO: our new harsh environment packaging for laser testing, sponsorships and software updates included.

Iris AO has been confirmed as one of a select few adaptive optics manufacturers sponsoring the Workshop on Adaptive Optics for Industry and Medicine (AOIM 2015) in Padova, Italy June 15-19 2015. Learn more.

Iris AO is pleased to announce Laser 2000 Spain as an authorized product distributor. This European partnership began over 2 years ago with Laser 2000 Germany and Laser 2000 France, and we are excited to expand the visibility of our products overseas through our collaboration with Laser 2000 Spain. Juan-Luis Vadillo, sales manager at Laser 2000 Spain, will be the main point of contact. Learn more.

Iris AO is continuously improving the function of our mirrors with high-power lasers. Our harsh-environment upgrade consists of a water-cooled heatsink and purge ports to eliminate organic materials. Learn more.

The Iris AO team will be at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference at Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 25-26 June 2014. Stop by booth #106 to see our high performance MEMS deformable mirrors in action and meet us. À bientôt à Montréal!

Iris AO welcomes two new distributors to expand into Asian markets. MoreSeeker and Aunion Tech will handle sales of our deformable mirror and AO system products in the People's Republic of China. Check our contacts page for more information.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awards a Phase II SBIR to Iris AO to develop flight-like MEMS deformable mirrors (DM) for space telescopes. Research funds from NASA will be used to develop and demonstrate wafer-scale assembly of DM arrays and increase drive-electronics resolution to up to 18 bits. The research will reduce MEMS DM fabrication costs and enable picometer-resolution DMs.

Iris AO expands its sales force in the US with the addition of HMS Technology Sales. Harry Skolnik, principal of HMS Technologies, adds 15 years of experience in wavefront sensing for lasers and optical systems. We are proud to add Mr. Skolnik to our dedicated team of engineers and sales force to sell our world class MEMS deformable mirrors and adaptive optics systems. Please contact Mr. Skolnik or Iris AO for any questions or price requests.

SPIE Photonics West 2014 Exhibition Feb. 4-6: Come see Iris AO high performance MEMS deformable mirrors in action in booth #6062 in the North Hall.

2013 ARCHIVED NEWS

Using a novel prototype instrument enabled by the PTT111 DM , researchers from the University of California Berkeley, Paris Observatory, and the SETI Institute distinguished and studied for the first time the individual stars of the binary star system Capella. The observations were made using the Fibered Imager foR Single Telescope (FIRST) mounted on the Shane 3-meter telescope at the University of California Lick Observatories in San Jose. Details are reported in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal.

Researchers from the UC Santa Cruz Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO) demonstrate the first ever sodium laser guide star (LGS) uplink correction with a MEMS DM on the Shane 3-meter telescope at the University of California Lick Observatories. Research results demonstrating LGS spot improvement using a PTT111 DM and resulting AO performance improvement will be presented at the 2014 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference.

SPIE Photonics West 2013 Exhibition Feb. 5-7: Iris AO demonstrates its compact DM packaging with its AO Engine adaptive optics control system. Come see Iris AO high performance MEMS deformable mirrors in action in booth #5202 in the North Hall.

2012 ARCHIVED NEWS

Iris AO begins NASA funded research towards space qualifying its segmented MEMS deformable mirrors. These mirrors will someday be used in space to image planets in distant galaxies.

Researchers at NASA demonstrate the highest contrast (>10⁹) to date of any MEMS-based coronagraph at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2012. The system uses an Iris AO PTT489 deformable mirror to correct the wavefront in this instrument. These result demonstrate the exquisite wavefront correction that segmented DMs are capable of.

Iris AO presents advances in deformable mirror technology at the Applied Industrial Optics: Spectroscopy, Imaging, & Metrology (AIO) topical meeting in Monterey California, on June 26.

Iris AO joins its European distributor Laser 2000 at OPTATEC 2012 in Frankfurt Germany. Come see Iris AO technology at Hall 3, Stand I31 May 22-25.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards a Phase II SBIR to Iris AO to develop MEMS deformable mirrors for laser applications. Research funds from the NSF will be used to tailor MEMS DMs for industrial and research laser applications

Iris AO continues development and testing of DMs for laser applications. Laser tests of high-reflectance 1540 nm dielectric coating samples from Iris AO show no damage for 4.2 mJ, 7 ns pulses with peak power of 76MW/cm².

Visit Iris AO in booth #4024 in the North Hall for the SPIE Photonics West 2012 Exhibition Jan. 24th - 26th. Iris AO presents latest results on developing DMs for high-power laser applications and building larger arrays at the Photonics West MOEMS-MEMS conference.

2011 ARCHIVED NEWS

NASA makes a strategic investment in Iris AO by awarding two multiyear research contracts. The first is from the Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions (TDEM) element of the Strategic Astrophysics Technology Program (SAT). This research will increase the TRL of Iris AO DMs in preparation for future space missions. The second is a Phase II SBIR grant that will develop a 1000-actuator picometer-resolution DM for exoplanet imaging.

Researchers at the New England College of Optometry publish results showing single cell imaging of chick retinas. The adaptive optics fundus imaging system is the Iris AO PTT111 AO Engine to correct aberrations in the chick retinas.

Iris AO presents laser testing results of its dielectric coated MEMS deformable mirrors at the 2011 SPIE Optics + Photonics conference. The paper describes the development of high optical quality DMs with dielectrics coatings from 355 nm - 1540 nm and shows a path to building MEMS DMs capable of handling 2800W/cm².

NASA researchers report on progress towards a 10^10 contrast visible nulling coronagraph that uses the Iris AO MEMS deformable mirrors for wavefront correction.

Researchers from the UC Berkeley Vision Science Department , Silvestre Manzanera and Austin Roorda, present results of using the Iris AO PTT111 MEMS DM in an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope at the ARVO annual meeting.

Visit Iris AO in booth #4504 in the North Hall for the SPIE Photonics West 2011 Exhibition Jan. 25th - 27th. Iris AO founder, Dr. Michael Helmbrecht, presents the latest Iris AO deformable mirror development at the MEMS Adaptive Optics V conference.

2010 ARCHIVED NEWS

NASA selects Iris AO for a Phase I SBIR to develop a picometer-resolution deformable mirror for exoplanet imaging. The Phase I SBIR will result in improved manufacturing processes to enable picometer-resolution deformable mirror resolution.

Iris AO and the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics continue high-power laser testing of dielectric-coated deformable mirrors. Testing will validate thermal models for the deformable mirrors to determine power-handling limits and guide designs efforts for greater power handling capabilities.

Researchers from Professor Austin Roorda's group at U.C. Berkeley test the AO Engine to implement the AO control for a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope. The AO Engine enabled the ability to image human photoreceptor cells in vivo. The tests demonstrate using the AO Engine as an off-the-shelf solution for ophthalmic applications.

Iris AO releases the AO Engine Workbench GUI for sale after extensive internal and external testing. This software provides an intuitive user interface for the AO Engine adaptive optics controller designed by Iris AO. The AO Engine has been in use by retinal imaging researchers since 2008.

Educators at the Center for Adaptive Optics Summer School use two AO Engine systems in a hands-on laboratory session to teach AO concepts.

Iris AO founder, Dr. Michael Helmbrecht to give a lecture on deformable mirrors at the 11th Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics held by the The Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO).

Iris AO releases updated device drivers for the PTT111 and PTT489 DMs. These drivers enable sustained 6.5 kHz mirror-position update rates for the entire PTT489 DM.

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley, SETI Institute, and the Paris Observatory test a novel astronomy imaging concept at the Lick Observatory. The FIRST (Fibered Imager foR Single Telescope) imaging instrument uses an Iris AO PTT111 DM to couple light from the primary mirror of the 3m Shane telescope into a fiber bundle.

Iris AO begins fabrication of a production lot of its next generation PTT489 DM.

The Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) chooses the PTT111 AO Engine to be its primary laboratory demonstration for adaptive optics at the upcoming 11th Annual Summer School on Adaptive Optics.

Abbott Medical Optics highlights Iris AO technology at the 2010 ARVO conference (Booth #512,514). The AO demonstration system incorporates an Iris AO PTT111-5 DM coupled to a wavefront sensor from its AMO Wavefront Sciences Division.

Iris AO provides beta PTT489-5 DMs to NASA GSFC for a high-contrast visible nulling coronagraph being developed as part of an Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concept Study. The Extrasolar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC) probe-class mission uses Iris AO segmented DM technology to achieve extreme contrast levels necessary to directly image exoplanets.

The NSF awards Iris AO a Phase I SBIR grant to further develop dielectric coatings for DMs. The grant will accelerate the development of MEMS DMs with dielectric coatings that range from 355 nm to 1540 nm.

Iris AO begins delivering beta versions of its PTT489-5 DMs to customers for use in atmospheric turbulence correction, beam control, and high-contrast imaging for exoplanet detection.

The Laboratory for Adaptive Optics (LAO) tests a dielectric-coated PTT111-5 DM at 532 nm. At nearly 100W/cm² laser fluence, the DM shows negligible changes in flatness. Preliminary testing suggests the capability to reliably handle 500/cm² with these off-the-shelf DMs

Iris AO teams with Abbott Wavefront Sciences to demonstrate a high-speed AO system for Photonics West 2010. Come see us in booth 2105. Iris AO presents development results of its 489-actuator DM at the Photonics West 2010 MOEMS-MEMS technical conference.

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Products: PTT111 Deformable Mirror; PTT111L Deformable Mirror; PTT489 Deformable Mirror; PTT939 Deformable Mirror; Smart Driver II – 128 Channels; Smart Driver II – 512 Channels; Adaptive Optics Engine

Specifications: PTT111 Deformable Mirror; PTT111L Deformable Mirror; PTT489 Deformable Mirror; Adaptive Optics Engine

Contacts: IRIS AO, INC.; 2930 Shattuck Ave. #304; Berkeley CA 94705-1883; PHONE: (510) 849-2375; E-MAIL: info@irisao.com