Optical Monitors - Introduction
 image The IL550 & IL560 Series of Optical Monitors:

    Dual Beam Automated Turnkey Solutions
    Free Space & Fibre Based Solutions
    Direct Monitoring or Monitor on a Test Glass
    Applications from 250nm to > 12 microns
    Powerful FilmMaker & FilmDirector software suites integrated with every system
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The IL550 and IL560 Series of optical monitors are complete turnkey packages. Each package represents a fully integrated and fully automated hardware and software solution achieving the highest standards in performance and capability. Intellemetrics has been making the premier optical monitoring systems for the precision coating industry since 1987 and these products represent the culmination of this work.

The IL550 & IL560 Series of optical monitors are designed to be fitted to your coating chamber and integrated into your coating process. Our engineers will provide all of the engineering required to make that possible and will then come to your coating facility, wherever in the world that may be, and install and commission the system onto your coating chamber. They will then provide the necessary training to get you started. See Installation Base for a list of some of the coating chambers on which we have installed our optical monitors.


Free Space Optical Monitor consisting of a Source,
Detector and Controller Modules

The IL550 & IL560 Series of optical monitors provide real-time endpoint capability for a wide range of precision optical coating applications ranging from 300nm to beyond 12 microns..

The IL550 & IL560 systems monitor the optical signal associated with the growing film and automatically provides a cut based on a pre-programmed optical thickness for that film. The system automatically adjusts the monitoring wavelength for each layer being deposited. The user can choose to make layer cuts either 'on' quarter wave turning points or 'off' quarter wave turning points depending on their situation. This is a major advantage of the IL550 & IL560 system over single wavelength systems and results in an extremely high level of precision, accuracy and repeatability. This process is automatically repeated for as many film layers as required until the process completes.

Quartz crystal monitors measure the mass of material deposited and are therefore ideal for control of parameters such as evaporation rate. However, Optical Monitoring is the only way to obtain a direct measurement of the true Optical Thickness of a layer and therefore Optical Monitoring is becoming the preferred solution for a wide range of precision optical components.


Fibre-Based Optical Monitor

The IL550 & IL560 Series are equipped with fully programmable Windows-based digital I/O interface. Our engineers will support the integration of the Optical Monitor onto your coating system including chamber integration and software integration with your quartz crystal and system controller. This enables users to rapidly integrate the Optical Monitor with a wide range of OEM and custom made coating systems.

A broadband source module illuminates the growing film and the detector module analyses the collected signal, either in reflectance or transmittance mode. The system automatically adjusts the probe wavelength depending on the layer being grown.

A dedicated processor unit enables the user to utilise powerful yet friendly Windows®-based patented software algorithms giving a high level of repeatability of optical thickness termination even in the presence of significant system noise.

The full software suite, including film design, coating process design, simulation and analysis tools, is provided integrated with the Optical Monitor system, and can also be provided as a stand alone offline desktop version.

Intellemetrics' powerful FilmMaker & FilmDirector suite of software is integrated with every system.


image Download a PDF Presentation on Optical Monitors


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