Bonding and Assembly Techniques
The assembly group at II-VI Aerospace & Defense has experience in opto-mechanical and various opto-electronic assemblies ranging from simple to complex configuration. Our team can build assemblies to print, refine a current optical design to provide a more cost effective / manufacturable solution or design an assembly based on a Statement of Work (SOW). Our Assembly team utilizes class 1,000 / class 10,000 clean room space and is geared toward defense based industries.
II-VI Aerospace & Defense performs various types of optical bonds on various types of materials. II-VI A&D is proficient in optical contacting, UV cure bonds, various adhesives and chemically activated bonds. Appropriate techniques will be utilized based on the application. II-VI A&D has a chemically activated bond process called the V-LOCK Bonding process. This process is superior to other processes with its ability to bond similar and multiple dissimilar materials together (something other processes don’t offer).
Below are some examples of bonded assemblies II-VI Aerospace & Defense routinely provides:
Beamsplitter Cubes
Waveplates
Dissimilar Materials
Product Experience:
- Opto/Mech Assemblies
- Electro/Optical Sub
- Window Assemblies
- Null Lens Assemblies
- Doublets, Triplets
- Reflector Assemblies
- LED Assemblies
- Aspherical Lens Assemblies
- Beam Combiners
- Reticle Assemblies
- Eye Piece Assemblies
- Mirror Mount Wedge Assemblies
- Rifle Scopes
- Prism Assemblies
- Binocular Assemblies
Thin Film Coating
II-VI Aerospace & Defense is a recognized leader in the application of visible and infrared thin film coatings for a wide variety of substrate materials. Our team of highly skilled optical thin film coating engineers design advanced coatings to meet customers’ specifications for next generation visible and infrared imaging systems, aircraft application and commercial products.
II-VI Aerospace & Defense' coatings have been proven to withstand a variety of hostile environmental conditions such as severe abrasion, including the windshield wiper test, salt-water submersion, rain erosion, missile exhaust, humidity, and salt fog. Most of these tests are performed in-house.
II-VI Aerospace & Defense' highly skilled optical thin film coating engineers design advanced coatings to meet our customers’ demanding specifications for next generation visible and infrared imaging systems, aircraft applications, and commercial products.
Coatings Offered
- Durable Anti-Reflection (AR)
- High-efficiency AR
- Thorium-free AR
- Conductive ITO
- Diamond-like Hard Carbon (DLC)
- Band-pass filters
- Spectral broadband filters
- Beam splitters
Specializing in:
- Broadband, Dualband, & Partial Reflective Coatings
- Highly Reflective >99.99%
- Low Scatter Reflective Coatings >99.9% Reflectivity Average
- DPSS Dichroic Coatings
- Metallic Coatings
- High Laser Damage Threshold
II-VI Aerospace & Defense Standard Coatings:
| 15501 | Conductive <20 Ω/square visible and near IR Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 16217 | Sapphire near and midwave IR Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 22100 | Zinc Sulfide Durable Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 22101 | Zinc Sulfide Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 22112 | Zinc Sulfide long wave, near IR, and visible AR |
| 24101 | Zinc Selenide Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 25101 | AMTIR™ Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 27107 | Durable Hard Carbon Coating on IG-6 |
| 34206 | Silicon Anti-Reflection Coating for midwave IR |
| 34207 | Silicon Hard Carbon Coating |
| 40100 | Germanium Anti-Reflection Coating |
| 40101 | Germanium Anti-Reflection Low Reflection Coating |
| 40102 | Germanium AR Broadband Coating |
| 40107 | Germanium Hard Carbon Coating |
High Reflection Coating Applications
- Ultra Broad-Band HR Coatings
- Dual Band HR Coatings
- Multi-Band HR Coatings
- Stress Compensation by Design (Preserves Ideal Surface Figure)
- Thermal Source Deposition
- Electron Beam Deposition
- Ion-Assisted Deposition
- Ion-Beam Sputtering Deposition
- Ultraviolet
- Visible
- Near Infrared (NIR)
- Short-Wave Infrared
Partial Reflection Coating Applications
- Output Couplers
- Partial Reflectors ± 1%
- Thermal Source
- Electron Beam
- Ion-Assisted
- Ion-Beam Sputtering Deposition
- UV
- Visible
- Near Infrared (NIR)
- Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR)
- Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR) AR Coatings
Anti-reflection Coating Applications
- Ultra Low Reflection Coatings
- Single-Band AR Coatings
- Dual and Multi-Band AR Coatings
- Broad-Band AR Coatings
- Thermal Source
- Electron Beam
- Ion-Assisted
- Ion-Beam Sputtering Deposition
- Ultraviolet
- Visible
- Near Infrared (NIR)
- Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR)
- Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR)
Polarizing and Non-Polarizing Beamsplitters
- Cubes, Plates, Brewster Windows, etc.
- High Extinction Ratio
- Good Polarization Sensitivity
Dichroic Filters
- Band-Pass and Band-Blocking Filters
Spike Filters
- Excellent Full-Width Half-Max (FWHM) Performance
- Ion-Beam Sputtering Deposition
- Ultraviolet, Visible, Near Infrared (NIR)
- Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR)
- Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR)
Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) & Mid-Wave Infrared (MWIR)
- Traditional IR Coating Materials Available Out to 10µm
- IBS Oxide Coatings (Non-Radioactive) out to 5µm (Anti-Reflection)
- Protected Metal Mirrors (Gold, Silver, Aluminum) with IAD
Multi-Spectral Operations
- Visible Wavelength Sighting in Addition to IR performance
- Laser Designator and Rangefinder Applications
- Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR)
- Thermal Imaging
Metalized Coating Advantages
- Dielectric Enhancement Allows Higher Reflectance Than Achievable with Bare Metals
- Ability to Solder Metal to Glass
- Enhancement of a Single Wavelength or Over a Broad Range
Applications
- Dewar & Hermetically Sealed Windows
- Patterned Metal on Annulus of Window
- Center of Window Optically Coated
- Edge Metallization
- Laser Rod Barrel Metallization
Metrology
- Scanning White Light Interferometry enables II-VI Optical Systems to Analyze and Measure Metal Film Thickness
- Can be Applied to Single Layer Metals or Multi-layer Metal
Whether a design calls for UV, Visible, NIR or IR wavelengths, II-VI Optical Systems can meet your most challenging coating specifications. Operating in a Clean Room environment, II-VI Optical Systems produces coatings which withstand high LDT requirements.
Coating Technologies
II-VI Aerospace & Defense has various coating technologies in the UV, Visible, NIR or IR wavelengths to achieve demanding customer specifications for laser quality optics. II-VI Aerospace & Defense’s coating engineering team has 100+ years of experience in the Optics field. All coating is conducted in a clean room environment. High LDT results are a key output of II-VI Aerospace & Defense’s coatings – and II-VI Aerospace & Defense’s commitment to this includes and in-house Laser Damage testing capability.
II-VI Aerospace & Defense utilizes E-beam deposition in conjunction with double rotation planetaries to achieve uniformity within a batch, and process controls to ensure batch to batch repeatability. Multiple material sets are available to meet design requirements.
Starting with a base of the E-beam Deposition framework, the additional Ion gun allows for a densification of the traditional E-beam coatings – reducing wet/dry shift and enhancing durability characteristics.
II-VI Aerospace & Defense utilizes Veeco equipment to produce high-quality, low-scatter laser optics. IBS coating technology is highly repeatable from batch to batch, and the systems contain the highest level of automated deposition control. Through proprietary processing, II-VI Aerospace & Defense is able to achieve high LDT on these dense IBS coatings.
On occasions it is necessary to utilize Thorium Fluoride in a coating. While we strive to avoid its use, we will use it if requested and/or approved by a customer for a special purpose. Because we retain this capability for special circumstances, we are also able to offer Thorium remediation of old optics containing such coatings.
II-VI A&D uses several different common glass substrates for film depositing:
- Fused Silica
- Crown Glass
- Flint Glass
- Filter Glass
Amongst the general substrates, II-VI A&D also works with several specialty materials:
- Laser Gain Crystals (YAG, YLF)
- Non-Linear Materials (LiNbO3)
- Crystals (KTP)
- Calcium Fluoride
Thoriated Coatings and remediation of optics containing Thorium Flouride are available on request here: Thorium Safety