MEMS practice, from the lab to the telescope
  Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology can provide for deformable mirrors (DMs) with excellent performance within a favorable economy of scale. Large MEMS-based astronomical adaptive optics (AO) systems such as the Gemini Planet Imager are coming on-line soon. As MEMS DM end-users, we discuss our decade of practice with the micromirrors, from inspecting and characterizing devices to evaluating their performance in the lab. We also show MEMS wavefront correction on-sky with the "Villages" AO system on a 1-m telescope, including open-loop control and visible-light imaging. Our work demonstrates the maturity of MEMS technology for astronomical adaptive optics. 
Katie M. Morzinski, Andrew P. Norton, Julia Wilhelmson Evans, Layra   Reza, Scott A. Severson, Daren Dillon, Marc Reinig, Do...
astro-ph.IM