MOCCA – Fully automated monitoring and control of production of optical coatings

Program surface during a coating operation.
© Fraunhofer IST
Program surface during a coating operation.

Precise coating-thickness control on an atomic scale

The designs of optical interference filters often consist of a large number of layers. With several hundred individual layers, not only must the coating process be kept stable but the thickness required to achieve transmission or reflection on the product must also be very precise in each case. The separation of coating formulations and optical control leads to increased effort for the operator and time delays during shutdown. System errors can rapidly lead to the loss of the entire batch. A central interface with a high degree of automation is required.

One software for the entire plant control

MOCCA (Modular Optical Coating Control Application) software has been designed to take care of all the work steps, from fitting out the system, through process settings and coating-thickness control, to quality control at the end. A broadband spectrometer is used to continuously determine transmission or reflection, from UV to NIR, of the product or a special monitoring substrate. Several times per second, the algorithms determine the time remaining until the layer is complete and directly access system control.

Increase productivity and optimize coatings

Increase the productivity of your coating line by combining monitoring and control. The interface and the optical beam path can be adjusted flexibly. Please contact us - we will be happy to support and advise you on MOCCA and other matters!

Program surface during a coating operation.
© Fraunhofer IST
Program surface during a coating operation.
User interface for definition of the substrate assignment.
© Fraunhofer IST
User interface for definition of the substrate assignment.

Selected reference project

 

Reference project

Automated monitoring system to control the production of optical coatings

 

Reference project

Plant control and process monitoring using MOCCA on industrial lines

More information

 

From research

Process automation with MOCCA+®