Due to its low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), carbon fiber is an ideal material for many metrology and scientific equipment applications. One of the challenges in metrology is susceptibility to environment changes, in particular temperature variation. In an aluminum structure, for example a target or laser tracker, the high CTE can cause problems if the ambient temperature varies too much. This is especially true for measurements made outside in very cold or very hot environments. Carbon fiber has an extremely low CTE – on the order of 1.5 x 10^-6 per degree C for an all-woven carbon fiber laminate, which is similar to that of Invar steel. Further CTE reduction is possible through fiber biasing, whereby uni-directional carbon fiber plies are aligned such that a greater percentage are in the longitudinal direction than the orthogonal direction. This provides a means to reach CTE values below 10^-6 / deg C. In fact, by using special ultra high modulus pitch carbon fibers it is possible to achieve close to zero (or in some cases negative) CTE in the direction of the fibers.