Mechanism for passive thermal compensation in harsh environment

The proposed passive thermal compensation mechanism is intended for maintaining the stability of performance parameters of an optomechatronic system over a wide operating temperature range. When integrated with airborne and military optomechatronic devices, this mechanism will also ensure their proper operation in harsh environments, characterized by exposure of the equipment to vibrations and shocks. Existing mechanisms designed for such purposes are only partially compliant. The proposed mechanism presents a simple structure consisting of two links and a frame. One end of each link is joined to the frame; the links are joined together at their other ends. All of the joints are hinged. At constant temperature, this structure has a zero degrees of freedom. One of the links is made from a material having a Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) different from that of the frame and the other link. When ambient temperature changes, the lengths of the links change in proportion to their respective CTE values. This results in one of the links performing a rotational motion. Exploitation of these phenomena allows the mechanism described herein to act as a motion amplifier. The amplifier Input is a small dimensional change in the links, caused by temperature change and its output is the rotational motion of The output link. The amplification is according to the rules of lever dynamics.