Optical Breadboard Selection Guide

Newport Optical Breadboards to fit any performance, budget or timeline are offered by Newport. Our optical breadboards range from economic Solid Aluminum Breadboard Plates all the way to the top-of-line Precision Grade Optical Breadboards. Many of our optical breadboards have the Microlock™ option (with -ML at the end of part numbers) or clearance holes to facilitate your applications that may require mounting of the optical breadboard to a table or other platforms.

Optical Breadboard Selection

See Optical Breadboards to quickly shop or browse all of our standard models. Otherwise, you can select a product family from the table below for more information.

Newport also offers many custom-made optical breadboards including Super Invar™ Breadboards and non-standard sizes. Contact us to discuss your custom size optical breadboard needs.

Optical Breadboard Families

Optical Breadboard Specification Comparison

Precision Grade Scientific Grade Industrial Grade Manufacturing Grade Solid Aluminum
Working Surface 3/16'' (4.8 mm) thick 400 Series ferromagnetic stainless steel 0.134'' (3.4 mm) thick 400 Series ferromagnetic stainless steel Aluminum
Bottom Skin 3.4 mm thick Carbon Steel N/A
Core Design Trussed honeycomb vertically bonded closed cell construction
0.010'' (0.25 mm) steel sheet materials
0.030'' (0.76 mm) triple core interface
13/16 in. (20.6 mm) precision formed composite core (sealed hole tiles) N/A
Hole/Core Sealing Easy clean conical cup 0.75 in. (19 mm) deep
Non-corrosive high impact polymer material
N/A
Mounting Holes 1/4-20 holes on 1 in. grid (M6-1.0 holes on 25 mm grid)
0.5 in. borders (12.5 mm borders)
Patented Modal Dampers Yes N/A N/A N/A N/A
Breadboard Damping Performance
Maximum Dynamic Deflection Coefficient <3.7 x 10-4 <14.4 x 10-4 <17 x 10-4 N/A N/A
Maximum Relative Motion Value [in. (mm)] <2.8 x 10-7
(<0.72 x 10-5)
<11.1 x 10-7
(<2.8 x 10-5 )
<13 x 10-7
(<3.3 x 10-5)
N/A N/A
Deflection Under Load [in. (mm)] <7.8 x 10-5
(<2.0 x 10-3)
<7.8 x 10-5
(<2.0 x 10-3)
<15 x 10-5
(<3.9 x 10-3)
N/A N/A
Applications Interferometry and critical high resolution experiments Electro-optical experiments and processes Industrial equipment platforms and less critical experiments Telecom device manufacturing requiring a low cost, high-quality mounting surface Classroom demonstrations and equipment setups

Note: All performance values are for 2 ft x 3 ft x 2.4 in. (600 x 900 x 59 mm) breadboards.
† 50 lb. (22.7 kg) centered

* IG Series thickness 2.3'' (58 mm).

What is Microlock™ option for PG, SG & IG Breadboards?

Microlocks can be used to mount breadboards on an optical table or directly onto any vertical or horizontal structure. They are normally positioned 1/6 of the length/width dimension in from the edge of the breadboard, with an additional Microlock in the center of the boards with larger sizes. With metric mounting holes, the Microlock positions are adjusted slightly to place them directly between the ranks of mounting holes. This provides automatic alignment of the Microlocks with the mounting holes in the supporting table when both the breadboard and the table have the same type mounting holes.

Microlock Crosssect-S

Learn More About Newport Optical Breadboards

When you choose Newport Vibration Control solutions, you have chosen not only high quality and performance products, but also our committed product support. Newport's experienced support engineers will be glad to help you determine which product suits your needs. Contact us to submit your feedback or questions.