Our Story

ROBUST AO was founded in 2020 by Dr.-Ing. Claudia Reinlein as an EXIST project in Jena. The young start-up company is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF). The team around the founder is growing steadily and together they have more than 15 years experience in the development and production of high-quality adaptive optical solutions. All employees are united by the enthusiasm to develop innovative methods for technical problems and challenges in the field of laser material processing. ROBUST AO contributes to the fact that production consumes less energy due shorter processing times and can be carried out in a more energy-efficient and resource-saving way.

Together, we are the home of the Zwobbel®

Vision

For our customers in the field of laser material processing, we make it possible to achieve multidimensional process efficiency and process innovations.

Mission

We develop and commercialise the Zwobbel®, which enables three factors for success:

  1. Short throughput time while maintaining manufacturing quality
  2. Robust and high-performance construction
  3. Compact ready-to-use solution

Values

Our daily work centres on trust and respect for our partners and customers. Together we create innovations focused on our customers’ demands and flexibly respond to their challenges. Our goal is to achieve more efficiency and sustainability of products and for production – both for our customers and Robust AO.

News

2/2023

Thanks to funding from the ESF/ Europe for Thuringia and the Free State of Thuringia, ROBUST AO GmbH was able to hire a permanent employee dedicated to application development for our Zwobbel-technolgy. In detail, our colleague will show that speed and quality can by improved by dynamic beam oscillations.

6/2022

Thanks to funding from the ESF/ Europe for Thuringia and the Free State of Thuringia, ROBUST AO GmbH was able to hire a permanent employee dedicated to developing a sales and marketing concept for the Zwobbel. In detail, the project aims at market analysis, trade fair visits, work on product design and innovative design via the media.

5/2021

Thanks to funding from the ESF/ Europe for Thuringia and the Free State of Thuringia, ROBUST AO GmbH was able to recruit two permanent employees who are dedicated to the research and development of the Zwobbel technology. In detail, the project aims to optimise the electronics and control technology, as well as the mechanical design and the manufacturing processes.

9/2020

Within the framework of the Thuringia Invest development program, ROBUST AO GmbH was granted subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which will be used for investments in new machinery, operating equipment and for business start-ups.

 

Thanks to our background in applied research, we have gained a broad knowledge in the application of adaptive optical (AO) systems. In the following, we present a selection from a paper with contributions to the ROBUST AO team found in the fields of focusing solutions and systems for laser and optical communication.

Scientific Publications

Focusing solutions

P. Böttner, A. Brady, C. Reinlein, R. Eberhardt, and S. Nolte, „Design routine and characterisation of a biconic deformable metal mirror for focus shifting,“ Opt. Express 29, 2971-2983 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.408748

C. Reinlein, M. Appelfelder, M. Goy, K. Ludewigt, and A. Tünnermann, „Performance of a thermal-piezoelectric deformable mirror under 6.2  kW continuous-wave operation,“ Appl. Opt. 52, 8363-8368 (2013). https://www.osapublishing.org/ao/abstract.cfm?uri=ao-52-34-8363

A. Jahn, C. Goppold, P. Herwig, C. Reinlein, P. Böttner, D. Stoffel, and M. Bach, „High dynamic beam shaping by piezo driven modules for efficient and high quality laser beam cutting and welding,” Lasers in Manufacturing (LiM), München , Germany 24-27 June, 2019

T. Goebel, C. Voigtländer, R. Krämer, D. Richter, M. Heck, M. Siems, C. Matzdorf, C. Reinlein, M. Appelfelder, T. Schreiber, J. Thomas, A. Tünnermann, and S. Nolte, „Flexible femtosecond inscription of fiber Bragg gratings by an optimized deformable mirror,“ Opt. Lett. 42, 4215-4218 (2017). https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-42-20-4215

T. Kopf, C. Reinlein, M. Goy, R. Eberhardt, J. Langebach, and T. Scheller, „Adapting the axial focus in high-power laser processing machines within mm-range„, Proc. SPIE 10097, High-Power Laser Materials Processing: Applications, Diagnostics, and Systems VI, 100970K (22 February 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2252098

P. Böttner, C. Reinlein, A. Jahn, P. Herwig, C. Goppold, D. Stoffel, M. Bach „Design, manufacturing and test of a highly dynamic piezo-driven metal mirror for laser material processing“ Proc. Lasers in Manufacturing (LiM), München , Germany 24-27 June, 2019

M. Goy, C. Reinlein, J. Kinast, and N. Lange „Cryogenic testing of a unimorph-type deformable mirror and theoretical material optimization,“ Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 13(1), 011107 (27 November 2013). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.13.1.011107

 

AO-Systems for laser and optical communication:

M. Gier, A. Brady, R. Eberhardt, and C. Reinlein, „Tip-tilt system characterization as a tool for fiber coupling efficiency estimation,“ in Imaging and Applied Optics Congress, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2020), paper JW2A.47. https://www.osapublishing.org/abstract.cfm?uri=AOMS-2020-JW2A.47

A. Brady, C. Rössler, N. Leonhard, M. Gier, P. Böttner, R. Eberhardt, A. Tünnermann, and C. Reinlein, „Validation of pre-compensation under point-ahead-angle in a 1 km free-space propagation experiment,“ Opt. Express 27, 17840-17850 (2019). https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-27-13-17840

A. Brady, R. Berlich, N. Leonhard, T. Kopf, P. Böttner, R. Eberhardt, and C. Reinlein, „Experimental validation of phase-only pre-compensation over 494  m free-space propagation,“ Opt. Lett. 42, 2679-2682 (2017). https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-42-14-2679

N. Leonhard, R. Berlich, S. Minardi, A. Barth, S. Mauch, J. Mocci, M. Goy, M. Appelfelder, E. Beckert, and C. Reinlein, „Real-time adaptive optics testbed to investigate point-ahead angle in pre-compensation of Earth-to-GEO optical communication,“ Opt. Express 24, 13157-13172 (2016). https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-24-12-13157

N. Leonhard, G. Sorelli, Vyacheslav N. Shatokhin, C. Reinlein, and A, Buchleitner, „Protecting the entanglement of twisted photons by adaptive optics,“ Phys. Rev. A 97, 012321 (2018). https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.012321

G. Sorelli, N. Leonhard, V. N. Shatokhin, C. Reinlein and A. Buchleitner, „Entanglement protection of high-dimensional states by adaptive optics,“ New J. Phys.21 023003 (2019). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/ab006e/meta

 

 

 

Our partners, networks & supporters: