A new form of the Three Mirror Anastigmat (TMA) optical system is introduced having embedded features that greatly advance state-of-the-art of its manufacturability. A simple fabrication and alignment process is realized by forcing the primary and tertiary mirrors to share a common vertex and all mirrors to share a common axis. The primary-tertiary mirror pair is fabricated on a common substrate with single point diamond turning, eliminating the need for aligning these two elements. Design examples and fabrication data for reimaging and nonimaging telescopes will be presented illustrating benefits of the common vertex construction.

Date Published: 16 September 1992
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1690, Design of Optical Instruments, (16 September 1992); doi: 10.1117/12.138019

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1690:
Design of Optical Instruments
David M. Aikens; Victor L. Genberg; Gary C. Krumweide; Michael J. Thomas, Editor(s)