THIN-FILM COATING
A thin-film coating is a single or multiple layers of materials deposited on a surface to modify its optical and functional properties. Winovus is a Singapore company that provides thin-film design, development, and manufacture high-performance optical coatings.
Our coatings improve the reflective, transmission, absorbance, and scratch-resistance of optical components. We optimise and customise physical vapour deposition (PVD) processes for your specific applications on substrates such as filters, lenses, mirrors, etc.
In addition to narrowband and bandpass filters, Winovus offers anti-reflection, high-reflection and protective coatings. Our applications include touch screen panels, optical components, microarray, wearables devices, optical filters, and biomedical applications.
Optical Coating Technology
Optical coatings are thin films of single or multiple layers of metallic or dielectric materials deposited on a base substrate. They are used to modify the transmission, reflection, polarization and surface properties of the coated substrate.
Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) is a coating process carried out under high vacuum conditions. The coating materials are vaporized and deposited onto a substrate. With a combination of varying film thickness and materials, the coating can achieve unique functional and optical properties. Our coating thickness can be from tens of nanometers to microns with angstroms layer accuracy. Substrate materials include glass, steels, non-ferrous metals, tungsten carbides and polymers.
Winovus has in-house thin-film design capabilities to customize and optimize PVD processes for various applications such as optical components, touch screen panels, microarray, smart wearables devices, etc.
Our thin-film coating capabilities include various PVD processes such as Sputtering (DC and RF), Ion-Assisted Electron Beam Deposition and Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc Deposition (FCVAC).
Direct charge sputtering (DC sputtering) occurs when electrically charged cathode forms a noble gas plasma and shot at a substrate target with atom-sized particles in a vacuum environment. The entire surface of the substrate is bombarded with the charged particles. DC sputtering can be used to deposit conductive materials such as metals or transparent conductive oxides.
Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputter Deposition (RF sputtering) involved alternating the electrical potential of the current at radio frequencies to avoid a charge building up on certain types of sputtering target materials. RF is used for the deposition of insulating, non-conductive materials.
Electron beam deposition is a thermal evaporation process in which the deposited material is bombarded with an electron beam to evaporate it to a vapour state for deposition on the target substrate.
Beam Evaporation can yield significantly higher deposition rates and is suitable for metal and dielectric materials with very high melting temperatures, such as Chromium and Titanium dioxide.
Ion assisted deposition (IAD) is a technique used to enhance the coating density of thin-film deposited. The ion bombardment significantly improves adhesion and permits better control over the morphology, density, internal stresses and chemical composition of the thin film. This enables the deposition to be done at a temperature relatively lower than the conventional EBeam process.
Cathodic Vacuum Arc Deposition is a thin film deposition technique that uses an electric arc (high current, low voltage) to generate a vapour emission of a film, from an evaporation source (cathode) and deposit the vapour on a substrate. The major drawback of this technique is that overextended evaporation period, macro-particles may start to be emitted from the evaporation site and thus resulting in substandard of thin-film layers being formed. This situation is eliminated by “Filtering” the vapour streams through the use of a magnetic field and therefore the improved technology “Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc” Deposition is created.
In Winovus, the FCVA is used to produced carbon-based coating. The ability to create high purity carbon atoms enables the production of Tetrahedral amorphous Carbon (TaC) layer, which has proven to be more durable than the common Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating.
Our thin-film coatings solutions include
Hard coatings such as Diamond-like carbon and Sapphire-like clear coat on various material
Oleophobic and Hydrophobic coating
Various optical coatings (both dielectric and metallic coatings) on both glass and plastics components
Thin-film coating applications and Markets :
- Optical component and lens
- Protective and scratch-resistant coating
- Anti-fingerprint, anti-moister, and anti-smudge surface protection for information touch display
- Technical/consumer-grade mirror application
- Lidar and sensors
- Microfluidic and Micro-arra
Coating Types:
- Anti-reflective coatings
- High reflective mirrors and metallic coatings
- Partially reflective coatings
- Polarizing coatings
- Hydrophobic and oleophobic coating
- Light Filters
- Neutral density filters
- Bio-compatibility, diffusion resistance, and wear resistance (TaC coating)
- Other speciality coatings.
About Us
Winovus is a pioneer in nanofabrication. We offer nanoimprint technology, nano injection molding, optical coating and customised mold fabrication for optical and functional structured surfaces applications.
Let us know how we can help.
Want to find out more about Winovus’ products and services?
Fill up the form below to enquire with us today.