Optomechanical optimal design configuration and analysis of glue pad bonds in lens mounting for space application

Abstract

Optomechanical systems are very complex requiring a high degree of accuracy. The carrier structure of an optical system is required to maintain the position of the optical components with respect to each other within the design tolerances. The most common loads on optical systems are self-weight, due to gravity orientations, and temperature ranges, due to exposure to rapidly changing temperatures from very cold to very hot and during launch. The fixing should ensure mechanical stability and thus accurate positioning in various gravity orientations.In order to ensure reliability during a space flight mission, the optomechanical engineer must understand the requirements of the space flight environment as well as the physics of failure of the optical components themselves; this can minimize the risks of on-orbit failure.This paper focuses on the optomechanical optimal design lens mounting using glue pads bonding. The main idea of this research study is to obtain an optimal choice of the position of the glue to fix the lenses on the barrel in such a way that we obtain a configuration of the optical assembly performance with less stress.In this paper, an investigation was performed using several methods including (thermo-elastic analysis, the margin of safety and lens distortion analysis). The results show that the position with six contacts glue pads is the best configuration compared to other configurations. This solution can be very helpful for decision-makers and optical engineers during the development phases of space optomechanical systems.