A simultaneous-imaging machine-vision approach for the precision alignment of two mm-wave antennas

We present an optical imaging tool, the Overlay Imaging Aligner (OIA), developed to aid in the mechanical alignment of antenna components in the mm-wave and low-THz frequency regimes (50-500 GHz) where wavelength size poses significant challenges for alignment. A polarization-selective machine-vision approach used to generate two simultaneous overlaid images along a common axis allows for aligning two antenna components to within fractions of a wavelength. The concept and application examples are presented along with a quantitative assessment of the alignment accuracy in the WR-2.2 band where the OIA alignment is compared to an electrical alignment.