Cilas coating machine to debut at Photonics West

Cilas will introduce what it claims is the largest thin-film coating machine in Europe, at Photonics West 2010, to be held in San Francisco from 26-28 January 2010.

Cilas develops and manufactures high-precision coated components in the spectral range from 250nm to 2.5um, for use in defence, space, astronomy, scientific and industrial markets.

The company recently invested in a new coating chamber using magnetron sputtering technology, which can coat large optics measuring up to 2 x 2m, with a high uniformity, which makes industrial volume serial production possible.

The platform also includes a large automated chain to clean optical components, as well as a variety of control and metrology devices.

This platform will: coat the protected silver plating on the Megajoule Laser's amplifier reflectors for the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); produce the mirrors used in space telescopes on behalf of the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA); and will refurbish the mirrors in the French Weaponry Department's (DGA) Odeillo solar furnace.

Cilas's know-how is based on its expertise in thin-film vacuum-coating deposition and its use of dense coating technology.

The company's coating equipment is equipped with optical-control systems designed to control its thin-film deposition in real-time.

Cilas has developed its own coating design software to master the production process from design to manufacture.

For high-resolution imaging applications of Earth observation from satellites, Cilas has combined ultra-dense coating processes with the latest microstructure manufacturing technology issued from microelectronics, in order to supply high-precision optical-coated components.

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