Flat thin-film filters by Alluxa

Ultra-flat dichroic and polychroic thin-film filters from Alluxa (Santa Rosa, CA) feature flatness of <0.1 λ root-mean-square (RMS) and transmission of >95% without the need for backside compensation. The filters use the company's plasma hard-coating process to produce low-loss, fully dense dielectric films with net zero stress on the primary coated side. Applications include confocal microscopy and DNA sequencing.

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PRESS RELEASE

Alluxa announces a new line of Ultra-flat dichroic and polychroic thin film filters that feature a flatness of <0.1wave RMS and transmission of > 95% without the need for backside compensation.

Santa Rosa, CA. -Alluxa, an emerging leader in next generation optical filters is pleased to announce the production of ultra-flat dichroic and polychroic filters with very high levels of in band transmission.

These filters are unique because they achieve flatness by eliminating the high stresses of as-deposited traditional ion-based coating process such as Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS) and Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD). Alluxa’s new technique uses a novel plasma hard coating process that produces low-loss, fully dense dielectric films with essentially net zero stress on the primary coated side. Because of this process, the films do not require the lengthy additional coating time of industry standard backside compensation or require the use of very thick and expensive substrates.

Typical uses for Ultra-flat, thin dichroics are in imaging and laser based applications like confocal microscopy, DNA sequencing, and communications.

According to Peter Egerton, Alluxa’s VP Business Development, “The goal of Alluxa’s proprietary coating process is to deliver the highest levels of filter performance to our customers. This is a good example of our technology enabling higher performance, lower cost, or even both at the same time. This is paricularly valuable in such a traditionally challenging product line.”

Ultra-flat, thin dichroic and polychroic filters are the latest product in Alluxa’s Ultra series of high performance filters. The Ultra line is intended to offer OEM customers and researchers higher performance than off the shelf products and commitment to tighter specification tolerances in order to provide the best possible system level performance.

A new whitepaper in Alluxa’s Learning Center (www.alluxa.com/learning-center) introduces the “Ultra-flat, thin dichroic and polychroic” product line and gives guidance on the specification and usage of these filters.

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About Alluxa:
Alluxa designs and manufactures next generation, hard coated optical filters using a proprietary plasma deposition process in Santa Rosa, CA. Alluxa’s unique, purpose-built deposition platform and control systems were designed, developed, and built by our team in Santa Rosa, CA to address the demanding requirements of the next generation of systems and instruments and to create the world’s most challenging filters at breakthrough price points.

For more information contact: [email protected]

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