47th Annual Society of Vacuum Coaters Technical Conference
Adam's Mark Dallas Hotel
Dallas, TX
April 24–29, 2004
The following information is provided as historical information for those who were unable to attend the show in April 2004, or those interested in learning more about the Society of Vacuum Coaters Annual Technical Conference.
Announcing The Donald M. Mattox Tutorial Program
Monday and Tuesday, April 26 and 27
February 2004 – The SVC Board of Directors Honors Don Mattox by Creating The Donald M. Mattox Tutorial Program.
The Award will be presented to Don Mattox at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening, April 25 by Awards Committee Chair, David Glocker.
In recognition of his many contributions to vacuum coating technology, the Board of Directors unanimously passed the following resolution:
"Whereas Donald M. Mattox has contributed significantly to vacuum coating technology and commercialization of vacuum coating through his original work and systematic collation, organization and dissemination of the knowledge of the vacuum coating industry, including glossaries, technical guides, tutorials, classes, reviews and historical perspectives of its key technologies, be it resolved that:
1) The Board of Directors confers life membership in the Society of Vacuum Coaters upon him.
2) Hereafter the Lunchtime Tutorials at the TechCon will be called The Donald M. Mattox Tutorial Program."
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Special Presentation in honor of The Donald M. Mattox Tutorial Program Monday Afternoon, April 26 "Vacuum Coating: an Enabling Technology" Vacuum (sub-atmospheric) coating processes have been the enabling technology in several fields for a number of reasons. The vacuum coating process has allowed a functional coating to be deposited when no other technique can do so and sometimes has allowed the production of a more functional coating than is available by other means. The use of a vacuum coating can provide a more marketable product that is produced at a low cost. In some cases the reproducibility of the process allows the production of very complex and demanding products such as multilayer diffraction gratings and bandpass filters. New markets have been generated due to the availability of vacuum coating processes. In many, if not most cases, a vacuum coating is a value-added process whose price and contributions to the economy and the environment is difficult to quantify. This presentation will address many of these subjects and compare some vacuum coated products to non-vacuum-coated products and processes. In the past few years’ plasma-based vacuum processes have become important production techniques and their use is expanding rapidly. Vacuum coating technologies will continue to develop and be an enabling technology for the foreseeable future. |
Monday Afternoon, April 26
12:30 p.m. – 1:10 p.m.
"Whither the Future of Vacuum Coating – Alive and Kicking or Dead and Buried?"
Presenter: Charles Bishop, C.A. Bishop Consulting Ltd.
Markets in Flux, - Deposition Processes in Transition, - Economic Uncertainties – these are certainly turbulent times. Where are we headed? When will we get there? Based on years of extensive experience in transitioning ideas into products, Charles Bishop will provide his views on this intriguing question. In this Lunchtime Tutorial he will review the various trends and influences that are buffeting the Vacuum Coating Industry.
Tuesday Afternoon, April 27
12:30 p.m. – 1:10 p.m.
"Web Coating for Fun and Profit – Lessons from Two Decades of Making it Happen"
Presenter: Don McClure, 3M Corporate Research Process Laboratory
Vacuum web coating has a long history and an exciting future. The first half of the talk will present key technical issues for success. The remaining time will highlight an array of vacuum web coated products, presented as examples of the broad range of structures that are possible. This guided tour will be based on the author’s experiences supporting a large variety of product programs over his career at 3M.
Vacuum web coating shares many issues with other vacuum coating operations but is decidedly different in several ways. In large volume operations, the coaters can be enormous, with film substrates up to 4 meters (13 feet) wide and film transport speeds up to 30 miles per hour. These attributes place unique requirements on the pumping systems, the coating source designs, and the monitoring and control systems. We will discover how high quality evaporated films can be produced in web form at pressures high enough to cause almost all other evaporation coating processes to fail.
In many newer applications, particularly sputter deposition processes, the substrate widths are smaller and the speeds are much lower. Again web coating places unique requirements on the processes, especially in terms of heat removal, in the management of the outgassing from the substrate, and in coating uniformity.
The talk continues with a product survey, organized according to the function of the deposited films (reflective, conductive, absorbing, antireflective, magnetic, and “none-of-the-above”) and concludes with a very brief look at future directions and opportunities in vacuum web coating.