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| ADVANCED OPTICAL COATING DESIGN |
| You have the Essential Macleod software and you are happily using it. In fact, it is designed to be easy to use. But there are all kinds of features in behind the simple interface. Although there is a comprehensive manual it really cannot substitute for this three-day hands-on course that covers tricks, tips, and advanced techniques and examples in a mixture of formal lectures and individual tutorials. |
| Course Description |
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Optical systems are everywhere. From our DVD players, to automobiles, optics plays an important, often leading, role. Modern surgery makes use of advanced optical systems for viewing, for tissue ablation, for cauterization. Metal sheets are cut to shape by powerful lasers. Rapid detection of pathogenic material relies on optical systems. We could not function in the modern world without microscopes, telescopes, cameras, display units. Telecommunication is largely optical. The list is almost infinite. Virtually no modern optical system could function correctly without the optical coatings that assure the correct properties of all optical surfaces in all its optical components. Antireflection coatings, beam splitters, polarizers, analyzers, retarders, narrow band filters, band stop filters, cold mirrors, thermal control coatings, color separators, phase correctors, decorative coatings, color variable anticounterfeiting coatings are just a few coating examples.
Coatings operate by a mixture of intrinsic material properties and controlled optical interference. They consist of assemblies of thin layers of different materials with accurately controlled properties including their thicknesses so as to present the required properties. Such is the complexity of the accurate calculation of their performance that computers are indispensable. The term Computer Aided Design is frequently used. This term means exactly what it says. The computer aids in the design activity, but the designer remains completely in charge and directs the operation. Skill, knowledge, understanding and the confidence derived from them, continue to be vital attributes of the successful designer. Their development is the primary objective of this course. Experience shows us that informal networking is an important component of our courses. To afford an opportunity for and to encourage networking we take lunch together each day, and on the Wednesday evening have dinner together. Each of these meals is provided by Thin Film Center and they form an important component of the course. We strongly recommend that everyone should stay for the duration of the course in the course hotel, and we have therefore negotiated a special course rate. We ask each student to bring a laptop computer with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 already installed. If the Essential Macleod software is not present then Thin Film Center will install a copy for the duration of the course. The course combines formal lectures with hands-on practice on the computer. It is an advanced course in the sense that it goes well beyond any introductory course and assumes some knowledge in the participants. However, advanced topics are not necessarily difficult. They are subject to the same logical rules of behavior as simple topics and there are many powerful techniques for understanding. The computer does the hard work of calculation, freeing us to do what we do best, that is understand and direct the work. Effective coating design implies the ability not only to know how to use the computer, but also to understand the computed results and both these activities are covered in detail. |
| Provisional Syllabus |
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Day 1 - Day 3 9.00 am - 4.30 pm
The syllabus is deliberately flexible. Topics include:
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| The Instructors | |
| Angus Macleod has over 200 publications in the field of optics including the book Thin Film Optical Filters. He is Professor Emeritus of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona and President of Thin Film Center. He has taught courses in optical topics all over the world to classes from one or two to over two hundred. He specializes in teaching techniques for understanding and logical thinking that avoid complicated theory without oversimplification. | |
| Christopher Clark is Director of Research at Thin Film Center. He graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in Electronic Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer. After a Lectureship at Brighton Technical College, he had a distinguished career in computer and software development for a variety of systems from radar detection to optical inspection, before joining Thin Film Center in 1993. His responsibilities include the development of the Essential Macleod software. He has more than twenty publications on the subject of optical coatings. | |
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Thin Film Center Inc 2745 E Via Rotonda, Tucson, AZ 85716-5227, USA Telephone: +1 520 322 6171 Fax: +1 520 325 8721 Email: info@thinfilmcenter.com |
See the current Masterclass schedule here... On-Site Delivery All Masterclasses are available for on-site delivery at your location. Please email Thin Film Center for more information. |