The Role Of Metrology In Society
Access to metrology is vital to the manufacturing sector and is a key enabling technology for the production of high quality, high value products and components.
Metrology is a key enabling technology for the manufacturing sector which supports the production of high quality, high value components and systems upon which all science, engineering and industry sectors rely on.
The UK’s national metrology institute, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) state that product verification processes typically account for 10-20% of finished product costs, and account for well over £15 billion per annum of costs in the UK economy alone.
Beyond the economic costs of applying conventional metrology practices there is also a constant demand from scientists to be able to measure physical quantities to an ever more precise degree in an ever more varied range of circumstances.
In the context of sustainability, improving metrology technology and capability can have dramatic impact on product quality and right-first-time manufacturing which contributes to increasing yields, lowering scrappage rates and reducing both energy and material consumption.
Optical Metrology
Optical metrology plays a vital role in an astonishing array of important research areas and applications, from basic science discovery to material processing, medicine, healthcare, energy, manufacturing and engineering. Instrumentation for optical metrology tends is overwhelmingly comprises large, heavy structures that require a well-stabilised environment to maintain accuracy, stability and functionality. All these aspects prevent optical metrology from moving into future smart and autonomous applications across many sectors because they represent a major barrier to deploying measurement capability in a way that maintains close integration with the point of manufacture.
Next Generation Metrology Driven by Nanophotonics
Our research programme is funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to challenge the fundamental barriers restricting the use of optical measurement techniques in highly integrated, smart, autonomous metrology applications supporting the Industry 4.0 paradigm and emerging nanotechnologies, by establishing a unique, world-leading UK-based research collaboration that brings together advanced metrology and nanophotonics technology.
It will translate the latest advances in nanophotonics, plasmonics and metamaterials research, in which the UK has played an internationally-leading role, into metrological applications. This will have a transformational impact on optical metrology by enabling cheaper, smarter and much more compact solutions.
The Research Programme
The research programme is focusses on three complementary topic areas:
1. Nanophotonics-enabled components for metrology: This strand draws on the wealth of recent fundamental developments in nanophotonics, for example, the fact that surfaces patterned with subwavelength-sized features can offer exquisite control over the wavefront of propagating light. Replacing one (or several) bulky element(s) with a single surface that carries out the same (combined) function offers hugely significant savings in size and weight, complexity and robustness (e.g. against misalignment), and opportunity to develop new measurement functionalities and instrumental configurations that are not otherwise possible.
2. Novel metrology concepts for nanotechnology: We are investigating two ground-breaking ideas for metrological technologies: The “optical ruler”, which allows for non-contact displacement measurements with potentially sub-nm resolution using a sensor that could ultimately be manufactured on the tip of an optical fibre; An approach to dynamic “nano-motion imaging” based upon the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) platform, to spatially map high-frequency nano- to picometre amplitude movement.
3. Novel metrology tools for manufacturing and nanotechnology: Using the nanophotonic components and concepts described above, we are developing novel metrology tools and measurement techniques to perform in real-world, as opposed to laboratory, conditions. Target applications include: surface/geometric measurement compatible with manufacturing tools such as diamond turning machines and multi-axis (sub)nanometric displacement encoding for translation stages.
Collaboration with UK Industry
This programme will bring together the expertise of world-leading research groups in metrology and nanophotonics, with key industrial project partners including Renishaw plc, and Taylor Hobson Ltd. Together, we aim to address long-standing challenges for optical metrology and to develop new, disruptive metrological technologies. These advances will be vital to support the high-value manufacturing sector in the UK.
The impact of this work, however, will be felt across a far broader range of disciplines, as size and weight are significant issues in, for example, instrumentation for space science, optical instrumentation for surgical applications, and robotic arm-mounted instruments.