Grippers for the assembly of microoptical systems

Fraunhofer IOF therefore develops grippers that care for these requirements and especially concern the specifics of microoptical parts. Development examples are mechanical and vacuum grippers for fibers, lenses and prisms as well as the development and characterisation of handling procedures with respect to accuracy and small gripping forces.

Using standardized interfaces according to DIN 32565 ensures that the gripper equipment can easily be adapted to various assembly tasks.

 

Specifications

  • Modular gripping concept for handling of various optical elements
  • High repeatability of the gripping process
  • Single- and multiple gripping of various optical components
  • High precise referencing structures machined by (Ultra)Precision Milling

 

Fiber gripper:

  • Two gripper arrangement
    - first gripper: gripping- and positioning accuracy
    - second gripper: strain relief
  • Gripping of fibres with 50 to 125 µm cladding diameter is possible
  • Gripping accuracy of about 10 µm (in accordance to the fiber geometrie)
  • Arrangement of fibers with 100 µm pitch is possible

 

Prism gripper:

  • vacuum gripper with referencing structures
  • gripping of components with sharp edged geometrie
  • aperture for optical active adjustment

 

Multiple prism gripper:

  • multiple gripping of up to 32 prisms
  • vacuum gripper with referencing structures
  • modular system for various prism geometries
    - simple replacement of function elements for refitting    prism geometrie
    - easy to clean by replacement of

 

Mirror gripper:

  • aperture for optical active adjustment
  • centering device realised by flexible gripper fingers
  • offset of tip and tilt by flexible gripper fingers