Optical Breadboards made from Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) provide a similar thermal stability to Super Invar but at a lower cost and are inherently non-magnetic. Since time immemorial, steel breadboards have been the only game in town. However, structures made CFRP have been used in the aerospace and space industries for many years due to their low weight, high strength, excellent thermal stability and low resonant frequencies.
The boards are available with flat working surfaces or alternatively with protruding head inserts, which allow a high degree of flatness by grinding of insert faces. To cover various requirements, our boards are offered in four different versions:

● EC-Version (Economy Series)

Cost effective series of breadboards based on honeycomb or sandwich panels with thick CFRP cover plate. Stiffness and thermal stability can be adjusted by varying CFRP plate thickness on top/bottom side of the board.

● AD-Version (Advanced Series)

● CA-Version (Full Carbon Series)

Boards of the CA-series are entirely made from Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP). The top and bottom plates consist of CFRP shells structurally joined by tubes and/or ribs made from CFRP. In addition to the advantages of the AD-series, boards of the CA-series allow the integration of optical / electronic components inside the stiff carbon shell and easy routing of wires and optical fibers. Breadboards can be ordered customized and with removable side-walls.

● SL-Version (Slim Line Series)

Slim Line Breadboards of SL-series offer high stiffness at minimum thickness. The breadboards are entirely made from Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) and constist of a top and bottom plate. The plates are optionally structurally decoupled by a damping foil which is laminated in-between. Typically breadboards of SL-series are used as additional platforms mounted on top of a larger breadboard or an optical table.