Micro-Mirror-Devices (MMDs): A New Family of MOEMS for the Habitable World Observatory

We present a new program aimed at developing a new generation of micromirror devices specifically tailored for astronomical applications, multi-slit spectroscopy in particular.

We first overview the general characteristics of Multi-Object-Spectrographs based on the current Digital Micromirror Devices (DMDs), with particular focus on the newly deployed SAMOS instrument at the 4.1 m SOAR telescope on Cerro Pachon.

We illustrate the operational advantages of DMD-based instruments and the technical limitations of the currently available devices, the DMDs produced by Texas Instruments (TI). We then introduce the baseline and target parameters of the new Micro-Mirror-Devices (MMDs) that we plan to develop with the goal of reaching TRL-5 by mid-2029 as required by the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) timeline.

We conclude with a brief illustration of the exciting potential of MMD-based spectrographs for an 8 m class space telescope like HWO.

M. Robberto, M. Gennaro, S. Kassin, S. A. Smee, C. Gong, J. Huffman, Z. Ninkov, I. Puchades

Comments: 18 pages, 8 figures; Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, accepted June 5, 2025
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2506.11340 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2506.11340v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.11340
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Submission history
From: Massimo Robberto
[v1] Thu, 12 Jun 2025 22:24:47 UTC (4,702 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11340
Astrobiology,