LaserClean optical breadboards feature low outgassing processes and components to provide an off the shelf solutions for applications that require low VOC or low outgassing components.
Sometimes, your application requires extra care to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOC) and ensure added cleanliness. Newport now offers a collection of Opto-Mechanical components and Vibration Control products that are cleaned the same as the vacuum version of these parts, but do not have the extra machining to remove the blind holes. Therefore, these products offer V6 cleanliness without the V6 price. We call these products, LaserClean™. For example, we've measured the cleanliness of a standard and LaserClean™ manual translation stage.
The 4.8 mm thick working surface on SG optical breadboards is bonded to a polymeric material that serves to seal the honeycomb core and damp the working surface. The trussed honeycomb is vertically bonded enabling a rigid triple core interface. Although the adhesive is rigid, its broadband damping factor is much higher than that of steel and introduces substantial damping into the core. The side panels are made of a highly damped, epoxy sealed wood composite. Compared to the metal sides used by other breadboard manufacturers, the composite wood sides offer significant damping to the structure and eliminate another source of resonance. The damping performance is evaluated and represented by a compliance curve. For better damping performance, check out our precision grade optical breadboards with patented modal damping.
Our trussed honeycomb core design maximizes an optical breadboard's rigidity to weight ratio by using an additional steel member to bridge across the center of the honeycomb cells. This design enables a triple core interface at each hexagonal honeycomb cell that is vertically bonded along the height of the core. Most manufacturers use 0.010 in. thick steel sheet for a 0.02 in. core interface, while our trussed design provides a 0.03 in. thick triple core interface for a 50% increase in local rigidity. To manufacture a honeycomb core with these advanced features, each piece of corrugated honeycomb steel sheet is emerged in proprietary elastomeric vibration absorbing materials and bonded vertically throughout the height of the core. This labor intensive procedure allows our optical breadboards to offer the highest static and dynamic rigidity, while also increasing point load carrying ability.
A typical optical breadboard features a sandwich structure consisting of two faceplates and a lightweight honeycomb core for a high stiffness-to-weight ratio. Most manufacturers use a traditional open cell construction that can't match the static rigidity of a Newport optical breadboard. Our honeycomb core design is different than our competitors. We use a high-performance trussed hexagonal shape honeycomb core which offers several advantages over ordinary small-cell round core designs. The hexagonal shape allows for a much greater surface area for bonding together adjacent cores vs. traditional designs that use corrugated wavy steel sheet with minimal contact between adjacent cores. The additional bonding area also improves the strength of our truss design that bisects each hexagonal core.
All of our optical breadboards are designed with a grid individually sealed 1/4-20 or M6 threaded mounting holes. Those mounting holes feature 19 mm screw depth. In contrast to some of the other products in the market that has channel for a row of holes or just a polymeric film, our individually sealed holes are more reliable and easier to clean. This is because we believe in the integrity of the product - especially the core. When dust and liquids go into your optical breadboard and table, it may have a long term effect on the damping performance of the product and make the product degrade over time. A good quality breadboard and table lasts long time - tens of years and more. It's a good investment for a product with sealed mounting holes.
With virtually oil free interface and minimized VOC, Newport's LaserClean™ breadboards deliver SG equivalent damping performance together with unmatched low-outgassing feature. No more worries about organic residue deposited on your mirrors - LaserClean™ breadboards are ideal for your laser applications and any application that requires a minimum outgassing.
Because of the special procedure and ingredients used to prepare the breadboards, there is significant reduction of VOC and other harmful compounds such as siloxanes.
Newport has a dedicated custom design team for your custom needs. This team has been working with various types of materials, shapes, structures, hole patterns (and many more) for over 40 years, and has served customers across the world in research, aerospace, semiconductor and medical related fields. We are committed to providing an accurate and timely quoting response, professional communications of custom design review and changes, optimum turnaround time, and the highest quality end product. Contact Newport Sales for more information.
Optical breadboards are selected based on performance criteria like damping and stiffness based on the application. Once the type of breadboard required is determined you can choose the surface size that will support your application.
| Precision Grade | Scientific Grade | Industrial Grade | Manufacturing Grade | Solid Aluminum | |
| Applications | Interferometry and critical high resolution experiments | Electro-optical experiments & processes | Industrial equipment platforms and less critical experiments | Telecom device manufacturing requiring a low cost, high-quality mounting surface | Classroom demonstrations and equipment setups |
| Damping Performance | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★ |
| Stiffness | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★ |
| Cost | $$$$$ | $$$$ | $$$ | $$ | $ |
| Working Surface | 4.8 mm Thick 430 Stainless Steel | 3.4 mm Thick 430 Stainless Steel | Anodized Aluminum | ||
| Bottom Skin | 3.4 mm thick Carbon Steel | N/A | |||
| Core Design | Vertically Bonded Trussed Honeycomb | Formed Composite | N/A | ||
| Side Panels | Modal Dampers | Highly Damped Composite Wood | N/A | ||
| Ferromagnetism | Magnetic | Non-Magnetic | |||
| Mounting Holes | Tapped and Individually Sealed | Tapped Through | |||
| Mounting Threads | 1/4-20 (M6) on 1 in. (25 mm) Grid | ||||
| Standard Version | PG | SG | IG | TD | SA2 |
| Microlock Version | PG-ML | SG-ML | IG-ML | N/A | N/A |
| Double Density Hole Version | N/A | SGD | N/A | N/A | SA2-D |
| LaserClean Version | N/A | LC | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Ultra-High Velocity