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Sagem
Company Description
Capitilizing on its expertise in high performance optical assembly technology for astronomy, space and defense, Sagem designs and produces all kinds of optical systems dedicated to the semi-conductor industry.
Sagem's skills in catadioptric and multi-mirror systems perfectly meet the new industrial needs in terms of manufacture (lithography, laser processing, etc.) and inspection of semi-conductor structures, LED, OLED, MEMS and all emerging micro and nano structures.
Sagem designs and produces conventional passive optics as well as complex equipment combining high performance opto-mechanics, electronics and software for the industry: actively figure controlled mirrors, leveling sensors, steering mirrors, cooled optics, etc.
Contact Information
 Avenue de la Tour Maury
St. Pierre du Perray
France
Press Releases
| Sagem delivers first prototype primary mirror segments for the European Extremely Large Telescope
Sagem (Safran group) has delivered to ESO (European Southern Observatory) the
first five prototype segments for the primary mirror on the European Extremely Large
Telescope (E-ELT), a major step forward in proving the feasibility of this exciting
new instrument.
The E-ELT is a huge telescope with a primary mirror measuring some 40 meters in
diameter (130 ft), designed to significantly improve our understanding of the
Universe. It comprises nearly 1,000 mirror segments, whose shape and position are
continuously adjusted using miniature electromechanical actuators. While improving
the overall image quality, this giant mirror also provides a 15-fold increase in the
surface area that gathers in light from the stars, outpacing all telescopes built to
date. The European Extremely Large Telescope will drive considerable progress in
astronomy, especially through its ability to directly acquire images of exoplanets
(outside the Solar System). It will start operation early in the next decade pending a
final go-ahead for E-ELT construction from the ESO Council.
The prototype mirrors for the E-ELT are produced by Reosc, a Sagem entity in
Saint-Pierre-du-Perray, near Paris. This facility is unrivaled in Europe, with its ability
to polish large mirrors to a surface accuracy of several nanometers, especially the
aspheric segments located off-axis on the mirror.
Sagem met several major technological and industrial challenges on the E-ELT
program. For instance, the 1.4-meter aspheric, hexagonal-shaped segments were
produced to unprecedented precision out to the edge of the mirror, using an
advanced computer-aided polishing technique and ion beam machining. The large
radius of the telescope mirror (84 meters/275 ft) made it very difficult to measure
these segments, thus requiring the use of an “extra large” test bench.
Sagem develops and produces high-performance optics for satellites, large
telescopes, high-energy lasers and the semiconductor industry. For example, the
company made the single-piece 8-meter (26 ft) mirrors for Europe’s Very Large
Telescope (VLT), and the international Gemini telescope. It also made the 11-meter
(36 ft) mirror for the Gran Telescopio de Canarias, the mirrors for the Nirspec
instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope and the Gaia astronomy satellites,
as well as optics for Meteosat, Spot and Helios satellites. |
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