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CFM

SCT has forged an exclusive license agreement with Applied Multilayers LLC.  SCT can now provide world leading technology for depositing high quality thin film optical coatings.   We offer a range of coating system platforms together with turn-key processes.  Our process technology is simple, scaleable and significantly less expensive; it is even applicable to sensitive polymer substrates.

The patented “Closed Field Magnetron” reactive sputtering process licensed by Applied Multilayers LLC is the most advanced yet devised. It takes optical coating into a new era of capability.

The process uses simple metal targets as the source material.  It achieves high deposition rates by operating near to “metal-mode”, but unlike other reactive sputtering processes, the reaction occurs all the way around the rotating vertical drum without the need for a separate ion or plasma source.  This makes the process simple and much more reliable. The process is versatile and works equally well for oxides, nitrides, carbides or pure metal coatings.

The CFM technology offers a step change improvement in capability for thin film coating processes and systems.  The advantages of the CFM process include:

  • The drum substrate carrier used in the CFM process is more efficient than the complex rotating substrate tooling used in evaporation. The substrate loading for the same sized vacuum chamber has a substrate load capacity which is about three times greater.
  • The hardware used in the CFM process is simple compared with ion-assisted evaporation, increasing both reliability and ease of maintenance.
  • The closed field process is a room temperature process ideal for plastic and glass substrates. Some evaporation processes on glass require substrate heating.
  • The stability of the CFM process allows thin film thickness to be controlled using deposition time only for most applications.
  • The thin films produced by the CFM process are of higher quality than those produced by e-beam evaporation. In particular, the films are denser, spectrally stable, super-smooth and more durable.
  • Magnetron sputtering systems are more compact, more energy efficient and require less maintenance than electron beam evaporation systems.

SCT offers a range of systems to match your application and budget.   Systems can be provided with a turnkey process suitable for immediate coating production.   We work with thin film researchers to push the technology and its applications even further.