PhD and Postdoctoral Positions in Smart Optics Systems, Delft Center for Systems and Control, TU Delft, The Netherlands

The Delft Center for Systems and Control announces 5 PhD Positions in Smart Optics Systems and 1 Postdoctoral position, by Michel Verhaegen (Delft Center for Systems and Control)


The field of smart optics systems is characterized by the use of deformable mirrors, lenses and wavefront sensors and intelligent image processing to enhance the image quality in real-time of scientific observation equipment. The improvement of the resolution of images is crucial in all areas of image analysis, ranging from (biomedical) imaging, astronomy, lithography to optical communication and laser material processing.

The development of the next generation of smart optics systems in order to enhance the widescale industrial use of this technology, a new development strategy has been proposed by leading researchers from the TU Delft. This new strategy calls for the optimization of both smart optics components as well as their interaction, i.e. a global systems optimization view. Sponsored by the
Dutch National Science Foundation STW a program with 20 PhD students has been approved in November, 2008.

Within this program (http://www.stw.nl/Programmas/SOS.htm), new microscopic instruments, active mirrors for lithography, integrated image processing and active optics and active laser technology will be developed. These new instrument developments will be done in multidisciplinary research projects bringing together the universities of Delft, Eindhoven, Twente, Utrecht and Rotterdam, the research laboratories TNO and FOM Institute for Plasma Physics and industrial partners, like ASML, Zeiss, Leica, Philips, Nikon.

In you have top qualifications and are interested in the innovative control engineering aspects (robust nonlinear, adaptive data driven control with 3D images) that need to be tackled in each of the 5 ambitious teams of PhD/postdoc’s developing these new instruments, please contact Prof. Michel Verhaegen of the Delft Center for Systems and Control, at M.Verhaegen@moesp.org

Brief summary of the 5 PhD projects:

1. Integrated High Resolution Observing through Turbulence (active partners in addition to the systems and control lab, TNO, Astronomical Institute of Utrecht University): Robust 2D-distributed image feedback control.

Application: diffraction limited observation with (solar) telescopes, longe-range cameras, surveillance camera’s and free optical communication.

2. Integrated Smart Microscopy (active partners in addition to the systems and control lab, TU Delft – Electronic Instrumentation lab, TU Delft – Dept. of imaging science & tech, Biomedical Imaging Group, Erasmus university, Rotterdam and Optical Imaging Centre, Erasmus university, Leica, Scientific Volume Imaging, Flexible Optical): Integrated optimization of adaptive optics control and adaptive post-processing of 3D image data.

Application: biomedical imaging with improved resolution optical (confocal) microscopes.

3. Smart Microscopy of Biological systems (active partners in addition to the systems and control lab, Molecular Biophysics group and Astronomical Institute of Utrecht University of the Utrecht University, Nikon, TNO, Philips and Flexible Optical): Improving convergence speed of adaptive optics correction taking nonlinear aberrations and measurements into account.

Application: Molecular biophysics.

4. Image Manipulation for Wafer Plane Conformity in Optical Lithography systems (active partners in addition to the systems and control lab, TU Delft – Mechatronic System Design group, TU Eindhoven – Control Systems Technology, ASML, TNO): Reducing static and dynamic aberrations in the optical path in a lithographic process using EUV.

5. Adaptive Optics: high resolution optics by adjustable component (active partners in addition to the systems and control lab, TU Delft – Mechatronic System Design group, TU Eindhoven – Control Systems Technology, ASML, TNO): Data driven control for Adaptive Optics and vibration reduction in lithographic processes.

The postdoctoral researchers has a focus on integral optimization of the overall smart optics system.