Measurement of aspheric surfaces using an improved annular subaperture stitching interferometry (IASSI)

An improved annular subaperture stitching interferometry (IASSI) is proposed for testing aspheric surfaces in the stage of precision polishing. It includes a reasonable stitching model and an automatic positioning operation. In the testing process, a series of optical path difference (OPD) data of annular subapertures is obtained as the interferometer is gradually shifted relative to the tested aspheric surface. Then these OPD data can be analyzed by the automatic positioning operation to get the key stitching parameters, and can be stitched together based on a reasonable mathematical model. To verify its validity, we study the applicability of the method to subaperture stitching tests of two conic aspheric surfaces. The stitching results agreed with the full-aperture test results.