Understanding and reducing mid-spatial frequency ripples during hemispherical sub-aperture tool glass polishing

During sub-aperture tool polishing of glass optics, mid-spatial surface ripples are generated because of material removal non-uniformities during tool linear translation (resulting in feed ripples) and tool pathway step overlaps (resulting in pitch ripples). A variety of tool influence function (TIF) spots, trenches, and patches were created to understand and minimize such ripples on fused silica workpieces after polishing with cerium oxide slurry using a rotating hemispherical pad-foam tool. The feed ripple amplitude can be decreased by reducing the non-uniformities in the pad texture and/or by minimizing a derived feed ripple metric ( r f = V m a x 0.5 V f / R t ) via adjustments in processing parameters. Pitch ripples can be minimized by reducing relative step distance to spot radius ratio ( x s / a t ) and by achieving a flat bottom trench shape cross section or by reducing the material removal per pass. Using the combined methods, an overall ripple error of ∼ 1.2 n m rms has been achieved.