The incubator for the optoelectronics industry in Wales, OpTic Technium of Cardiff, will help researchers from University College London and Cranfield University to advance processing technology for ultraprecision surfaces. The goal of the project is to produce the surfaces at 10 times the accuracy and speed of current technology and to establish a research facility to optimize a multiprocess production cycle for three-dimensional polished surfaces. The facility would be suitable for low-volume component manufacture and would provide the groundwork for a national large-optics fabrication laboratory in the UK.
As part of the four-year program, which is funded by a grant of roughly $6.5 million from the UK Research Councils, OpTic will work with the researchers to commercialize the technologies.