Electronics development for the Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi)

Abstract

This thesis describes the design and implementation of compact high voltage drive electronics for a multi-actuator microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based deformable mirror (DM) for the 6U CubeSat Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) with the objective of increasing the NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the MEMS DM toward its use for direct exoplanet imaging on a future large aperture space telescope mission. This thesis outlines the key requirements for DM performance, successfully develops a commercial-component based DM drive electronics board for a 140-actuator MEMS DM that is scalable to higher actuator count DMs, discusses the attributes of alternative designs in the initial trade study that were not further pursued, and summarizes the plan toward fully integrating and testing the MEMS DM drive electronics into the optical payload.