After several months of meticulous design and assembly, Bertin Winlight has successfully completed the Quadruple Mach–Zehnder (QMZ) destined for ONERA (the French Aerospace Lab).
The QMZ is a monolithic interferometer operating in the ultraviolet range, at 343 and 355 nanometers. It is made up of silica components manufactured at the Bertin Winlight site in Pertuis, then assembled by thin-layer bonding onto a silica baseplate. Integrated into an onboard LIDAR system for future low-consumption aircraft, it will enable the early detection of turbulence. Due to their high-aspect-ratio wings, these aircraft will be more sensitive to such phenomena, making the real-time activation of adaptive wing control essential. This system will directly contribute to improving flight safety and passenger comfort.
The assembly of the QMZ was carried out in full compliance with all the highly sensitive technical requirements of the project, notably beam overlap accuracy better than 2 μm and 1 arcsecond.
This new project illustrates Bertin Winlight’s strong capabilities in prism manufacturing, bonding and adhesion control, and integration into complex embedded systems. Bertin Winlight combines precision, innovation, and performance to meet the most demanding challenges in aeronautics.
