  In the last years, the Observatory of Padova (Istituto Nazionale di
Astrofisica - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova) and the University of Padova
have been involved massively in projects dedicated to the exoplanets search,
both ground, and space-based. The activities concerning my Ph.D. have been
exploited both in the framework of the space projects and in the field of
ground instrumentation. PLATO, the acronym of "PLAnetary Transits and
Oscillations of stars", is a ESA mission o with the target to detect and
characterize exoplanets utilizing their transit on a bright star. The overall
instrumental layout consists of a multi-telescope concept instrument, composed
by several tens of telescope units, for which it has developed an
all-refractive optical solution. These devices are characterized by a very
large Field of View (>20 degrees on one side) with an optical quality that fits
most of the energy into a single sensor pixel. I participated in the Assembly,
Integration, and Verification (AIV) of the Telescope Optical Unit prototype, to
validate the AIV procedure and the telescope optical performance in-flight
conditions. SHARK-NIR, the acronym of "System for coronagraphy with High order
Adaptive optics from R to K band - Near-Infrared", is an instrument designed to
search and characterize the young exo-planetary system and star-forming regions
in the NIR domain, in coronagraphic direct imaging and spectroscopic mode. It
has been selected for the 2nd generation Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)
instruments, and it will take advantage of the excellent performance of the LBT
eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) correction, necessary for SHARK-NIR to achieve
the best possible coronagraphic performance, which is mandatory to detect faint
planets orbiting around bright stars. Concerning SHARK, my activity has been
performing optical alignment and qualification of the instrument.
