Glasgow: Silicon carbide bonding to make astronomical lenses

Licensing opportunity

Researchers from the institute of Gravitational Research at Glasgow University who specialise in gravitational wave and are looking to license their proprietary silicate bonding technology, a technique that relies on hydroxide-catalysis to join optical components to optical mounts for increased stability and precise alignment procedures.

Materials such as silica have been used to make space-bound optical systems that are mechanically stable, lightweight and able to resist temperature changes and accelerations. Hydroxide-catalysis bonding is a process by which a hydroxide such as sodium, catalyses a silica surface by hydration and dehydration, and so, can be used to join two pieces of glass with very strong bonds.

Professor James Hough and his colleagues have produced a patented bonding technology that can be used to form a layer of silica on a silicon carbide surface, so acting as a bonding surface, to apply a hydroxide ion containing bonding solution to the bonding surface and to further position the bonding surfaces to allow optimal bond formation.

Silicon carbide bonding technology can be used for precision construction, as it allows the manufacture of very thin, stable, uniform and reproducible bond layers at room temperature, that can be finely adjusted prior to joining of silicon carbide components used in making ground- and space-based applications (GEO 600 and LISA respectively).