Boston Micromachines Corporation is a US company operating out of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts. Boston Micromachines manufactures and develops instruments based on

MEMS MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e., 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices ...

technology to perform open and closed-loop

adaptive optics Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique of precisely deforming a mirror in order to compensate for light distortion. It is used in Astronomy, astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of Astronomical seeing, atmo ...

. The technology is applied in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, beam shaping,

vision science Vision science is the scientific study of visual perception. Researchers in vision science can be called vision scientists, especially if their research spans some of the science's many disciplines. Vision science encompasses all studies of vision ...

, retinal imaging,

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical mic ...

, laser communications, and national defense. The instruments developed at Boston Micromachines include

deformable mirror Deformable mirrors (DM) are mirrors whose surface can be deformed, in order to achieve wavefront control and correction of optical Optical aberration, aberrations. Deformable mirrors are used in combination with wavefront sensors and real-time con ...

optical modulator An optical modulator is a device which is used to modulate a beam of light. The beam may be carried over free space, or propagated through an optical waveguide (optical fibre). Depending on the parameter of a light beam which is manipulated, mo ...

s, and retinal imaging systems, all of which utilize adaptive optics technology to enable

wavefront In physics, the wavefront of a time-varying ''wave field (physics), field'' is the set (locus (mathematics), locus) of all point (geometry), points having the same ''phase (waves), phase''. The term is generally meaningful only for fields that, a ...

manipulation capabilities which enhance the quality of the final image.

History

Founded in 1999 by Dr. Thomas Bifano and Paul Bierden, Boston Micromachines is a provider of

-based mirror products for use in commercial

systems which apply wavefront correction to produce high resolution images of the human retina and enhance blurred images. The company also performs contract research in optical

fabrication.

Research and development

Boston Micromachines is funded in part by research programs and develops new products for astronomy, microscopy, pulse shaping, beam shaping, fiber coupling, space optics, retinal imaging, and national defense purposes. Most recently, Boston Micromachines has developed an Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope for high-resolution ''in vivo'' imaging in the human retina for use in pre-clinical studies. The instrument is currently in use in the

Feinberg School of Medicine The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, formerly Northwestern Medical School from 1906 to 2002, is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in ...

and the

Joslin Diabetes Center Joslin Diabetes Center is the world's largest diabetes research center, diabetes clinic, and provider of diabetes education. It is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Among the Harvard Med ...

. Capabilities include quantitative measures of cone physiology, detection of microaneurysms and small vessel blood flow profiling. Their products are often customized for specific applications.

Applications

Astronomy

Boston Micromachines develops deformable mirrors for

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

s to correct for atmospheric disturbance. Projects currently using Boston Micromachines' mirror technology include the ViLLaGEs Project at the

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

as well as the

Gemini Planet Imager The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a high contrast imaging instrument that was built for the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. The instrument achieves high contrast at small angular separations, allowing for the direct imaging and integral field spe ...

in Chile.

Biological imaging

Through the use of

s can be used to enhance

Confocal In geometry, confocal means having the same foci: confocal conic sections. * For an optical cavity consisting of two mirrors, confocal means that they share their foci. If they are identical mirrors, their radius of curvature, ''R''mirror, equals ' ...

techniques such as two-photon excitation fluorescence (2PEF),

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

- and/or

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

Harmonic Generation Harmonic generation (HG, also called multiple harmonic generation) is a nonlinear optical process in which n photons with the same frequency interact with a nonlinear material, are "combined", and generate a new photon with n times the energy of t ...

(SHG/THG, respectively),

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy, also called Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy (CARS), is a form of spectroscopy used primarily in chemistry, physics and related fields. It is sensitive to the same vibrational signatures of ...

(CARS),

Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) is a method of examination of the eye. It uses the technique of confocal laser scanning microscopy for diagnostic imaging of the retina or cornea of the human eye. As a method used to image the retina with a ...

(SLO),

Optical coherence tomography Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution imaging technique with most of its applications in medicine and biology. OCT uses coherent near-infrared light to obtain micrometer-level depth resolved images of biological tissue or oth ...

(OCT) as well as conventional wide-field microscopy. Of particular interest is that deformable mirrors increase the resolution of

retina The retina (; or retinas) is the innermost, photosensitivity, light-sensitive layer of tissue (biology), tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some Mollusca, molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focus (optics), focused two-dimensional ...

l images to achieve ~2 μm resolution levels.

Photoreceptor cell A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuroepithelial cell found in the retina that is capable of visual phototransduction. The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light (visible electromagnetic radiation ...

s are around 3 μm in diameter. Without adaptive optics, resolution levels are in the 10-15 μm range. Research using other confocal techniques is currently taking place at such locations as the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Laser beam and pulse shaping

Boston Micromachines deformable mirrors are capable of correcting for atmospheric distortion in long distance laser communication and other

pulse shaping In electronics and telecommunications, pulse shaping is the process of changing a transmitted pulses' waveform to optimize the signal for its intended purpose or the communication channel. This is often done by limiting the bandwidth of the trans ...

applications.Steven Menn, Steven A. Cornelissen, Paul A. Bierden , 2007, Advances in MEMS deformable mirror technology for laser beam shaping,

Management

* Paul Bierden, President and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

* Dr. Thomas Bifano, Chief Technology Officer * Steve Cornelissen, Vice President of Engineering

Awards

* 2010 R&D 100 Awards

Bioscience for MEMS-based Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography Instrument * 2009 Dr. Thomas Bifano Awarded Bepi Colombo Priz

* 2007 Micro/Nano 25 Awards, Innovatio

* 2003 R&D 100 Award

MEMS Based Adaptive Optics Phoropter

References

{{Reflist

External links

BostonMicromachines.com
Manufacturing companies established in 1999 Companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Optics manufacturing companies 1999 establishments in Massachusetts