Surface Optics
Roll-to-Roll Coatings
Our unique roll-to-roll coating process was developed in-house for Electron Beam, Jori Source and Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) of metallic and dielectric films (all processes scalable). 1.8m and 5m chambers accommodate a variety of applications, with deposition on film up to 1000m x 1.5m wide and a great deal of experience handling sub-10 μm films. Substrates move across four banks of e-beam guns, allowing up to four discrete layers per pass, and PID programmed rate monitoring allows for precise thickness deposition. Capability to process roll to roll film in a Rewinder cleanroom room (ISO class 5).
1.8m (1000m X 1.5m film capacity @ 5 mil) Roll To Roll E-beam/Jori Source with backfill capability, single layer)
5m (1000m X 1.5m film capacity @ 10 mil) Roll To Roll, E-beam, IAD, up to 4 layers )
Space Flight Composite Reflectors
Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) of metallic and dielectric films, performed with four chambers and variable configurations to accommodate large substrates and diverse applications. Reflectors and optics up to 3 meters can be coated. Full mechanical design, fabrication, proof-loading, complete handling plans for accommodating unique hardware and scalable processes to meet larger reflector needs. Surface Optics Corporation’s coatings lab has successfully coated hundreds of flight reflectors.
AEHF 1.6m composite reflector, installed in 3.3m chamber prior to coating.
Chambers
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3.3 meter (motion controlled e-beam IAD)
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1.8 meter (motion controlled e-beam IAD)
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1.2 meter (planetary)
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Small R&D chamber (up to 2 runs per day)
Optical Coatings
The ability to manufacture custom band pass coatings from the 250nm to 5000nm enables Surface Optics to produce a wide variety of filters:
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Edge Filters
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Beam Splitters
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Anti-Reflection Designs (Multiple Bands)
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Polarization Filters
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Cold and Hot Mirrors
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Enhanced Metal Coatings
1.2 Meter Optical Coating Chamber with Optical Monitoring and Ion Assisted Deposition Technology. Capable of making Hard Oxide Coatings with High Precision and Durability (No Vacuum to Air Spectral Shift)
Spectrally Tailored Paint
SOC’s optical coating expertise is used to create unique spectrally tailored paints. Releasable PVD thin film coatings are processed into spectrally tailored flake pigment. Wavelength dependent reflectance and absorption can be customized to customer requirements using design principles of optical interference coatings. Spectrally tailored pigments are incorporated into paint or ink formulations with application and cure mechanics specifically tailored to customer end-use.
Facilities and Quality Control
Surface Optics Corporation’s coatings lab is ISO Certified (AS9100 Rev C) with a a 2,000 sq.ft. cleanroom (ISO Class 7) primary lab utilizing 60 Hepa filters and a portable cleanroom housing roll-to-roll film Re-Winder (Class 5).
Certification
Surface Optics quality system has been fully documented and implemented and is maintained as needed to meet the requirements of our Company vision and governing policies. Surface Optics has adopted a process-oriented method of management. This approach emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and understanding, meeting and integrating customer requirements:
Operations and Maintenance
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All operations Work Instruction and Checklist driven (Quality compliance, Procedural stability, Technician training and certification)
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Detailed Work Orders
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Processes Traveler Controlled
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AS9100 standard for preventative and incidental maintenance (Preventative Maintenance Program, Maintenance Action Program/Documentation, Coating Discrepancy Database)
Technician Training
Fifteen point in-house technical training program for Operator Certification:
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Coating Systems
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Production Safety
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Clean Room Procedures
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Power Lifter Certification
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Chamber Cleaning
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Chamber Re-Foiling
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Ebeam Guns
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Jori Sources
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Control Station Procedures
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Control Station Procedures
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5 M Chamber Operations
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1.8 M Chamber Operations
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Work Orders and Travelers
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Re-Wind Machine Operation
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Packaging/Shipping Procedures
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Quality control
Hemispheric Directional Reflectance
The hemispherical directional reflectance (HDR) of a surface is defined as the ratio of the total energy reflected into the subtending hemisphere to the energy incident on the surface from the direction Theta, Phi. The measured directional reflectance of a surface may be used to compute two important properties required for radiative heat transfer analysis, viz. the directional emittance and the solar absorptance.
A transmissive material may transmit electromagnetic radiation in one of the following two ways. First, as a collimated beam of light propagates through the material it may be scattered into a hemisphere of 2 p steradians upon exiting the material. Materials that exhibit this type of property ( Scattered Transmittance, Ts) are called translucent.
Secondly, if the transmitted beam is parallel to the incident beam across the width of the entire beam, the transmittance is referred to as Collimated Transmittance (Tc). Materials of this type are called transparent.
Utilizing either the Cary 5000 UV/VIS/NIR reflectometer, the SOC-100 or SOC-400T IR reflectometer HDR or T measurements can be made from the UV out to the very long IR. Data is recorded directly to ascii text files on the PC and is importable into ExCel or other spreadsheet software.
Features & Benefits
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HDR measurements can be made as a function of incident angle (8 to 80° from normal) vs. most competitors who are restricted to near-normal incidence.
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HDR measurements in the IR utilize the SOC100 gold plated hemi-ellipse vs. competitors who utilize diffuse integrating spheres. This allows HDR measurements to be made far into the IR (out to 100um) as opposed to 12-15 microns for companies using just integrating spheres.
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HDR measurements can also be partitioned into Diffuse (DDR) and Specular (SDR) components without altering the test set-up. Competitors must set up for measuring each component separately, if they can measure them at all.
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Transmittance measurements (either Ts or Tc) can be made from normal incidence out to 60° from normal. Most competitors can only make normal incidence T measurements.
Applications
Aerospace
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Verification of paint and coating
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Determination of solar absorptance & thermal emittance
Energy and Solar Power
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Determining the specularity (mirror-like qualities) of reflective components.
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Mirror Qualification
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Determination of solar absorptance & thermal emittance
Military
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Military defense
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Aircraft and ground target signature modeling
Remote Sensing
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Simulator scene generation
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Ground truth
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Material mapping
Bidirectional Reflectance (BRDF)
The bidirectional reflectance (BRDF) of a surface is defined as the ratio of the luminous radiance reflected into a unit solid angle to the total incident radiance.
Features and Benefits
BRDF testing can be performed over a wide range of wavelengths by using broad band sources and bandpass filters. Most competitors utilize only laser sources and are restricted to those wavelengths.
The following are features for BRDF measurements made on the standard SOC BRDF goniometer:
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Wavelengths: 0.4 to 14.0 micron (discrete wavelengths using bandpass filters).
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Incident Angles: normal incidence to 80° incidence from normal.
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Reflected Angles: -85 to +85° from normal (in zenith). Full 360° azimuthal (rotational) coverage.
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Sample size: ½ “ square or diameter up to 10 “ square or diameter.
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Mapping techniques: In-plane only, In-plane and cross-plane, or Full Hemispherical Mapping (Full Mapping)
SOC has several additional bidirectional reflectometers that are used to obtain bidirectional reflectance data. One such device is unique in that it is designed to measure the direct retroreflection using laser sources. A Michelson interferometer arrangement is used to enable placement of the detector and source on the optical axis opposite the sample. This setup allows the BRDF in the retro direction to be measured using heterodyned detection methods. Wavelengths available for the interferometer are 0.535 and 1.06 microns.
Applications
Aerospace
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Verification of paint and coating
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Stray light analysis
Energy and Solar Power
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Determining the specularity (mirror-like qualities) of reflective components.
Military
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Military defense
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Aircraft and ground target signature modeling
Remote Sensing
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Simulator scene generation
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Ground truth
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Material mapping