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HTMLText_33711F51_3D9B_3042_41C8_5BBC76E1A7A1.html = Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA)
Welcome to MESA, home of Sandia’s advanced nuclear weapons research, design and development functions, as well as integrated materials research, and the production facilities for microsystem technologies.
Focused primarily on the nuclear weapons mission, the facilities that make up MESA ultimately connect with all of Sandia's mission areas via microsystems research and applications.
After eight years of construction, MESA was completed in 2007 at a cost of $518 million. It was Sandia's largest construction project since the Labs' first permanent buildings were built in the 1940s.
898 Lobby
Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
Gowning Room
Clean rooms environments are kept clean both by limiting the volume of particles introduced to the space and by constantly moving the air to remove particles. Workers wear protective garments to reduce the number of contaminants they introduce to the room. This changing station allows staff to put on appropriate layers prior to entering a clean room; additional changing rooms allow for full changes of clothing.
858 Lobby
Originally built in the late 1980s to house the Manufacturing Development Laboratory and its offices, Building 858 expanded significantly when 858EF (the MicroFab) and 858EL (MicroLab) were added as part of the MESA construction. The building houses wafer manufacturing, compound semiconductor fabrication, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production, and electronic circuit manufacturing.
MicroFab
The MESA Microsystems Fabrication facility is one of the most complex buildings at Sandia. It is the first in the world to combine silicon processing with fabrication of compound semiconductors under one roof. This is the heart of microsystem manufacturing, done primarily in cleanrooms.
858 SiliconFab
Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. Its polished stone and steel and glass exterior includes curvilinear walled ribbons of windows leading to the northeast entrance, and extended wings with sun-protecting louvered windows. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
898 Corridor
State-of-the-art videoconferencing and stunning projection capabilities make the VIEWS Corridor a prime viewing and sharing spot for scientific computing displays. Output from the visualization tools used in Sandia's high performance computing arena can be projected in 3D. The area is a magnet for VIP visits and tours.
858 Photolith Lab
Sandia maintains a clean room outside of the MicroFab area for its photolithography processes. This allows the MESA workers to develop and maintain customized processes without disruption to the manufacturing effort.
Safety precautions taken prior to and during LAZAP tests involve scanning the sky for aircraft in the vicinity. The LAZAP facility is located on Kirtland Air Force Base, which is adjacent to Albuquerque's airport. Two visual observers assist LAZAP's radar operator by scanning for aircraft from the visual observation deck located just outside the main control room. The observers have an interlock switch capable of preventing the laser from firing.
In 2014, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center allocated $4 million to replace LAZAP's then 30-year-old beam director, which was nearing end-of-life. Over the next several years, LAZAP facilities underwent a significant upgrade, including construction of a new beam director building and significant upgrades to existing infrastructure.
Laser heads are rebuilt and aligned in the Optics Lab. The laser head is the source of the laser beam and is configured with appropriate optics for the particular use.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the third Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite June 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Designed by Lockheed Martin, GPS III satellites carry the Global Burst Detector (GBD) payloads built by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, which look for nuclear detonations around the world and provide real-time information about potential activity to U.S. decision makers. The narrated video, courtesy of SpaceX, starts about a minute before launch and ends with the rocket traveling at about 475 km/hr at an altitude of 1.7 km.
A green laser shoots skyward from Sandia's Laser Applications (LAZAP) facility, one of many capabilities of Sandia's space program. Built in the mid-1970s, LAZAP uses high-powered laser beams to test and calibrate optical sensors onboard Global Positioning System and Defense Support Program satellites. A major upgrade of the facility was completed in 2018, including the addition of two laser labs and a 0.5- meter diameter telescope/beam director.
This animation shows a view of the Earth from the vantage point of a Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite. Launched beginning in the 1970s and still in use today, DSP satellites are equipped with infrared sensors to detect the heat signatures associated with missile and spacecraft launches and nuclear detonations. The DSP constellation operates in geosynchronous orbit 22,236 miles above Earth's equator, which means the satellites circle the Earth at the same rate the Earth rotates. Their location makes them particularly useful for communications and surveillance.
As a safety feature, the grounds camera is used to ensure the area around the LAZAP facility is clear of personnel during laser operations.
LAZAP has its own prototype lab for making one-off replacement parts and modifying mechanical fixtures that would be difficult or impossible to purchase commercially.
Visual observers scan the sky for aircraft during LAZAP tests with the help of two tracking cameras. One camera helps the visual observers track aircraft while the second camera tracks with the beam director and points where the laser is propagating.
This artist's rendering shows the original LAZAP facility built in the 1970s. The beam director and optical table for the lasers rest on a 10-foot-thick concrete isolation slab that protects the sensitive equipment from vibration.
The beam director operator is responsible for steering the laser beam and ensuring it is correctly tracking the target satellite.
This station is used for firing the lasers during alignments and setup and for programming the Programmable Logic Controller interlock system, one of the facility’s primary safety mechanisms.
The LAZAP facility contains a one-of-a-kind ruby laser that was custom-built for Sandia in 2000. Ruby lasers produce pulses of visible light at a wavelength of 694.3 nm, producing a deep red beam. At the center of Sandia’s ruby laser system is a synthetic ruby rod surrounded by four flash lamps. The flash lamps are fired by a bank of capacitors, illuminating the ruby laser rod, which emits laser light. The beam passes through an optical array and eventually is routed through an opening to the beam director.
Using a variety of optics, such as amplifiers and mirrors, the ruby laser beam is directed through this port to the 0.5-meter beam director.
The LAZAP laser labs house a Class IV ruby laser system and Class IV green laser. Class IV lasers are the highest power lasers available, requiring multiple safety mechanisms to protect facility personnel. To protect facility personnel, LAZAP is equipped with a safety interlock system. Interlocks are circuits that stop the laser beam from being fired if something is awry, such as if a room door is open or a laser is out of alignment. In addition, any member of the LAZAP team can stop the laser from firing if he or she believes a hazard is present.
Sixteen individual power supplies and associated capacitors are used to provide the energy to the ruby laser system.
LAZAP team members align and calibrate the ruby laser using an eye-safe red helium-neon laser.
Safety is paramount in all LAZAP operations. Prior to and during a laser shot, LAZAP's radar operator, together with observers on the observation deck, monitor for nearby aircraft, people, and other safety concerns. The radar operator monitors air traffic in the vicinity using a live radar feed from the Federal Aviation Administration superimposed over LAZAP's location. Each aircraft is represented by a dot that is color-coded by altitude; the "tails" emanating from each dot indicate the trajectory of the aircraft. The blue beam shows where the beam director is pointing. The radar operator uses all this information to ensure no aircraft are in the range of the beam and to decide, if necessary, whether to hold off shooting the laser.
More than 2,000 satellites orbit the Earth at different heights and speeds and along different paths. Before performing a LAZAP test, Sandia must obtain permission from the Laser Clearinghouse, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Laser Clearinghouse tracks the orbits of satellites and provides Sandia with a specific time block within which to deploy the laser to prevent the beam from crossing paths with passing satellites and potentially damaging their sensitive optical equipment.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Robert J. Volio/Released)
Each of the four heads in the ruby laser contains a synthetic ruby rod about six inches long and a half inch in diameter. When energized with flash lamps, the ruby rod emits pulses of laser light. On average, a rod can be used for about 1,000 laser shots. Since synthetic ruby rods are no longer manufactured in the United States, the lifespan of Sandia’s ruby laser is tied to the existing supply of ruby rods.
The laser operator controls when the laser is fired and monitors safety conditions and laser energy levels from shot to shot. About 30 seconds needs to elapse between each shot to give the laser time to cool down. The operator also monitors predictive avoidance data, which identifies time periods during which the laser can be shot without inadvertently illuminating a nontargeted satellite or spacecraft.
The test director oversees and coordinates each mission. Using a satellite "toolkit" - a commercial application that pinpoints the location of the target satellites - the test director is responsible for confirming the laser's path. Other responsibilities include communicating with counterparts at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which also has sensors on the satellites, and monitoring local weather.
The spectrometer station is used for characterizing optics and can reveal, for example, the type of coating on a lens or mirror.
The beam director operator monitors numerous live video feeds from 12 video cameras pointed at the sky and at various optics tables within the facility. In this photo, the operator observes the location of all Global Positioning System satellites while communicating with a ground station to verify the laser is on target.
LAZAP's control room is the nerve center of testing and calibration missions. The test director, telescope operator, and laser operator perform their respective functions in the control room while communicating with two visual observers on the observation deck and the radar airspace monitoring system operator located in another room.
The ruby laser system is equipped with a water-cooling system. The flow panel is used to control the water flowing to each of the four laser heads. About 30 seconds needs to elapse between each shot to give the laser time to cool down.
Even small amounts of laser light can result in permanent eye damage. Laser safety goggles work by blocking specific wavelengths of laser light from reaching the eye. Therefore, different types of safety goggles must be worn when working with different lasers.
LAZAP uses two different lasers for testing and calibrating Sandia-built optical sensors on satellites. The lasers - a 532 nanometer (nm) laser (green) and 694.3 nm laser (red) - have different characteristics (e.g., energy levels, pulse widths, and wavelengths) that allow them to be used for different kinds of tests. For some tests, both lasers are used together.
Dust and other contaminants can interfere with the performance of laser optics, such as mirrors and amplifiers. The LAZAP team uses carbon dioxide to remove dust particles from optics.
This beam-director control station is used to perform the same functions as the beam-director operator station in the main control room. The console is used to control the laser signals that are beamed into space.
A star camera is used to help align the laser. The camera is used to look through the telescope and focus on a star for alignment.
The first functional laser was a ruby laser developed by physicist Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in 1960. Laser is an acronym that stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." Maiman's discovery ignited the scientific community, which set out to develop applications for the laser in a wide range of fields. Sandia was a participant in that early laser work, building a laser laboratory in 1960 for testing ordnance.
Associated Press / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
The target mirror covering the beam-director's input window is used to align the laser by reflecting the beam of an alignment laser back through the optical array. The target mirror is removed after the laser is aligned.
Laser periscopes are tools for changing beam path direction and elevation. In the green laser lab, a periscope (in the black box on the left side of the image) is used to raise the laser beam about a foot to match the height of the beam-director input window.
In 2018, LAZAP was upgraded with a 0.5-meter beam director, which is used to propagate lasers to the optical sensors onboard Global Positioning System and Defense Support Program satellites. The terms "beam director" and "telescope" refer to the same instrument operating in different modes. Lasers are propagated into space using a telescope as a beam director; conversely, a telescope can also be used to gather and focus light from the night sky.
A boresight camera, shown here being adjusted by a team member, allows LAZAP personnel to see the airspace in front of the beam-director. For example, the presence of clouds in the line of sight of the beam-director could interfere with laser performance since the lasers operate in the visible spectrum.
The laser beam exits the dome through a shutter that can be aimed at a desired point in the sky.
Laser beam expanders increase the diameter of a laser beam to a larger collimated output beam.
A core instrument for LAZAP operations is a beam director, which is a telescope that has the capability to beam a laser to a precise location in the sky. LAZAP's 0.5-meter beam director is located inside a dome that can rotate 360 degrees so that the aperture can be pointed toward a desired location in the sky.
LAZAP's half-meter beam-director is housed in a dome that can be rotated so that the aperture can be pointed toward the desired location in the sky. The dome control box is used to manually position the dome.
The interlock control box is part of LAZAP's safety system and consists of a set of "fail-safe" switches. All of the switches must be closed for the lasers to be fired.
The LAZAP facility was built in the 1970s to provide calibration data for the Vela satellite constellation. Sandia, with Los Alamos National Laboratory, developed the Vela satellites to detect space or atmospheric nuclear testing and verify compliance with the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Sandia contributes the Earth-looking optical sensors; the data processing, logic, and power subsystems; and the ground link. The first of 12 Vela satellites was launched in 1963. Despite a predicted 18-month lifetime, the satellites flew until the mid-1980s when test ban treaty monitoring was shifted to other systems and the last Vela satellite was turned off. During a 1962 visit to Sandia, President John F. Kennedy looks on as Sandia President Siegmund Schwartz, right, explains capabilities of the Vela satellite, designed for detection of nuclear detonations.
Prior to each laser test, the elements of the optical system must be checked for precise alignment. In this video, LAZAP team members use eye-safe green diode lasers to align the optics in the lab housing the Continuum Nd:YAG laser.
Each LAZAP lab contains an oscilloscope, a device used to monitor the functionality of equipment by measuring the changing voltage of electrical signals over time. LAZAP personnel use the oscilloscopes to verify their equipment is working properly and to troubleshoot problems.
In laser systems, each component must be precisely aligned. These systems are usually built on optical tables, which are heavy, stainless steel platforms with grids of pre-drilled holes for securing optics and other equipment. In this photo, a LAZAP team member adjusts the alignment of a mirror.
Using turning mirrors, lenses, and other optics, the half-inch-diameter beam produced by the ruby laser is expanded to two inches in diameter and steered through a porthole to the half-meter beam director. The beam is collimated multiple times along the way, which means the beam is passed through a device that aligns the rays of light to be nearly parallel. A collimated beam of light spreads minimally as it travels. This is what allows a laser beam generated within LAZAP to precisely illuminate the optical sensors on a satellite 12,500 miles above the Earth.
Completed in 2017, Laser Lab 2 is LAZAP's newest addition, housing a 10 hertz commercial Continuum Nd:YAG laser capable of 2 joules per pulse. An array of optics steer the laser beam through a periscope, which elevates the beam to the level of a porthole that leads to the 0.5-meter beam director.
Laser burn paper is a nonflammable paper used to imprint a laser beam to test its alignment.
LAZAP's original beam director is a 30-inch aperture Cassegrain telescope. Although still used occasionally, the original beam-di- rector was replaced in 2018 because it was approaching the end of its useful life. Laser beams generated in the laser labs can be directed to either beam-director.
Each of the four heads in the ruby laser contains a synthetic ruby rod about six inches long and a half inch in diameter. When energized with flash lamps, the ruby rod emits pulses of laser light. On average, a rod can be used for about 1,000 laser shots. Since synthetic ruby rods are no longer manufactured in the United States, the lifespan of Sandia’s ruby laser is tied to the existing supply of ruby rods.