03 Jul 2007 Deposition Sciences, Inc. (DSI), manufacturer of highly durable thin film optical coatings, announces an innovation in optics with the HeatBuster Spectral Metal product line. The new breakthrough product is a dichroic hybrid coating that is designed to be highly reflective over selected bands of wavelengths and minimally reflective over the rest of the spectrum. The HeatBuster Spectral Metal thin film coating line combines the spectral advantages of glass mirrors with the cost-savings and durability of sheet metal fabrication.
DSI’s HeatBuster Spectral Metal is able to operate over a wide range of angles. The base material for the new Spectral Metal product is highly polished stainless steel. A ‘dark mirror’ coating is initially deposited onto the substrate which optically couples the unwanted wavelengths into the metal. A highly-reflective dichroic coating is then coated onto the ‘dark mirror’. The finished product is a spectrally-selective mirror that is highly durable, reliable and reflective.
Spectral Metal coatings can be fabricated into many forms. For curved optics, the parts can be formed using standard sheet metal fabrication methods prior to coating. Curved collection optics can be fabricated as long “trough” reflectors and then laser-cut into segments of the desired length. Alternatively, the HeatBuster Spectral Metal sheets can be laser cut into simple or complex shapes after the coating process. Fabrication of the sheets after coating eliminates the need for expensive tooling for the optics or the coating chamber.
DSI’s proprietary MicroDyn sputtering technology yields a high performance, extremely durable Spectral Metal coating. This highly precise, uniform coating is exceptionally stable over temperature and humidity changes, meeting the severe abrasion, adhesion, humidity, and salt fog tests of Mil-C-675 standards. HeatBuster Spectral Metal is ideal for applications in general lighting, medical systems, digital imaging, LED lighting systems and/or any portable optical system that encounters rugged mechanical or environmental conditions.
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