Optical Sensor Attachments
3-D Designs
Produced by Daniel Senda

 

Page Information

·       This page was created to show a few glimpses of the design process for the optical attachments. The software that is used to create the CAD files is FreeCAD. The 3-D printer used is the LulzBot Mini 2.

·       One of the projects that a few of graduate students were working on was designing, laying out, and testing an Avalanche Photodiode (APD). While in the testing stages of the APD chip, a custom attachment was required to use with an optical sensor (Thor labs integrating sphere). Daniel took charge of designing the custom optical sensor attachment.

Dimension Information

The following diagram was found in the technical documents of the integrating sphere. A few additional measurements were calculated and measured using a caliper.

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Sketches

The following is the initial sketch of the attachment. The bottom portion of the attachment was designed to snap into place on the optical sensor. Also, as can be noted, the top of the of the attachment has an opening for a copper tube to fit into place. The idea of this custom attachment is to have no outside light enter the set-up.

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The initial sketch was finalized by adding appropriate dimensions for the attachment.

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FreeCAD Design

The following are the different three versions of the attachment. The outer exterior remains the same, but the tube opening changes. The different apertures were used to get a wider variety of data to help in testing the APD chip.

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Finalized 3-D Printed Attachments

The first couple prints were not perfect, and refinements were made to create the final versions. Again, the outer exterior remains the same, but the inside aperture is different. In addition, the attachment was first printed in white, but then changed to black to diminish any source of outside light from entering the final set-up.

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Optical Sensor Attachment in Use

The following pictures show the final set-up that the graduate students envisioned. The requirement of having no external light from entering was a success. More information about the APD chip, layout, and testing can be found on the following graduate student thesis.

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Additional Links

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