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| Home > ELCAN Capabilities > Cutting Edge Technology |
ELCAN Optical Technologies is a fully integrated firm specializing in the design and manufacture of complex, precision optic, electronic and optoelectronic systems and sub-systems for the medical, commercial, industrial, defense, entertainment and aviation markets. Established in 1952, ELCAN has evolved into one of the world's leading suppliers for precision optical systems and subsystems. We currently employ over 1,300 personnel within three modern facilities that are situated in Midland Ontario, Richardson Texas, and Málaga Spain. Our manufacturing facilities encompass over 450,000 sq ft and are ISO-9001 and ISO/TS16949 certified.
Optical Fabrication: Optical Fabrication lies at the very heart of our operation and plays a vital role in maintaining our position as a world leader in the field of optics. Every operation, from grinding, polishing and coating through to testing, utilizes the most advanced technologies and processes. Training of our opticians is performed through a four-year intensive apprenticeship program. The Optical Department is capable of handling optics, both spherical and plano, from 1mm diameter to over 12 inches in diameter, in a wide diversity of materials. This includes approximately 150 types of optical glass and, in addition, grind and polish IR materials such as germanium AMTIR, zinc sulfide, zinc selenide and silicon. Typical components include spherical lenses, prism, reticles, windows and beam splitters. Once optical elements are fabricated and coated, many move to our optical cementing area where they can be bonded into doublets, triplets, reticle assemblies or prism assemblies. The cementing of these highly complex optical elements requires a combination of extreme manual dexterity, the most advanced ultra-precise concentration and alignment techniques. We use in-house designed, automated cementing and alignment equipment and techniques that enhance product quality while maximizing throughput. Many of these assemblies are bonded with arc-second accuracy and withstand extreme environmental conditions when used by our customer. Understanding Thin Film Coatings: ELCAN has pioneered many of its performance improvements in modern optics based on advances in thin film coating techniques. ELCAN has been a world leader for almost 60 years in thin film coating design and manufacture with anti-reflection, high reflection and hard-carbon protective coatings for eye and sensor protection, beam splitting, electrical conductivity and other performance enhancements.
The key to ELCAN's success in this sophisticated, complex technology is the design and manufacturing processes and support infrastructure (metrology, maintenance, information technology and quality control), which provides four shift operations with minimal engineering and supervisory intervention. Yields on coatings with 80 to 200 layers approach to levels of single layer films. Examples of ELCAN Thin Film Coated Products: These thin film coated products were developed for military and commercial applications as follows:
Optical Thin Film Coatings: The need for coatings, especially anti-reflection versions, is easy to understand. Whenever light passes from one medium to another, such as from air to glass, some of the light is transmitted and some reflected. The amount that is reflected is determined by the difference in the refractive index between the materials, and by the angle of incidence of the incoming light. For a light beam in air striking uncoated glass at normal incidence, the strength of the reflection is typically just a few percent of incident optical power. For example, in the case of the common glass BK7, which has a refractive index of 1.52, the reflection is 4.25% at each air-glass boundary. Although this may not seem much, for optical designs using more than a few components, losses in transmitted light can rapidly multiply. For BK7, half the signal is lost passing through 8 elements (16 surfaces). For germanium, a high-index substrate, more than half the signal is lost passing through a single element. This lost signal is not absorbed but reflected, so light can appear at unexpected locations in a system. In imaging equipment, these reflections can cause a significant loss in image contrast as ghost images, since the reflections may get superimposed on the primary image. Fortunately, in many cases these troublesome reflections can be virtually eliminated by the use of a thin-film anti-reflection coating. In a similar fashion it is possible to create highly reflective coatings that give different kinds of wavelength filters and beam-splitters. The Science Behind Optical Coatings: So how do thin-film coatings work? Put simply, the optical properties of a coating are governed by optical interference between the reflections from the upper and lower surfaces of the film. With a stack of thin films, reflections from each of the layers need to be considered to understand the coating's optical characteristics. A simple anti-reflection coating can be made by choosing a film of a certain thickness and refractive index so that the reflections from its upper and lower surfaces are out of phase and will interfere destructively. In reality, this coating is often made from a single film with an optical thickness equal to a quarter of the incident light's wavelength. These “quarter-wave” films are a common building block in many designs of coating. Specifying an Optical Coating: Optical coatings generally fall into three main spectral regions: the ultraviolet (UV), the visible and near infrared (VIS-NIR) and the infrared (IR). The coating materials used differ depending on the wavelength region of operation, though some specialized coatings are multi-spectral. Different coating houses may specialize in some or all of the wavelength regions. The ELCAN thin-film design engineer would benefit from the information contained here: Specifying an Optical Coating. Diamond Point Turning (DPT): Our diamond-turning facilities are among the largest and most advanced in the world. Staffed with highly trained technicians operating state-of-the-art computer numerical control (CNC) machines, our extensive diamond-turning services provide for complete control throughout each stage of production. We are capable of performing the design, development, production, coating and testing of diamond-machined flat, spherical, aspherical and diffractive infrared optics and integrating these components into high performance cost-effective subsystems. ELCAN is capable of machining a multitude of different polymers, crystals and non-ferrous metals. Some of the more commonly machined materials include Aluminum, Germanium, AMTIR, Zinc Selenide, Zinc Sulfide, Polycarbonates, Silicon and Calcium Fluoride. Typical Diamond-Machining tolerances are 80 Angstroms surface finish and ¼ wave surface form. ELCAN has recently developed a proprietary new method of smoothing diamond turned surfaces to visible quality RMS of 30 Angstroms. The ELCAN VQ mirror finishing process provides for highly cost-effective broadband optical reflective system performance. ELCAN diamond-turning development efforts have led to the implementation of improved processes that respond to new product development challenges quickly and efficiently. Other development efforts include diffractive testing methods, refractive and reflective systems, tool path correction capabilities, holographic testing methods and high-speed spindle capabilities. VQ: Are your broadband optical tools unable to meet your cost, cycle time, weight and performance requirements? ELCAN has developed a proprietary NEW method of smoothing DPT Aluminum 6061 mirror surfaces to Visible Quality of 30 Å and beyond! VQ is a revolutionary new process that provides for cost effective fabrication of reflective aspheres with visible quality surface finish. Conventional Single Point Diamond Turning produces surface finishes near 100Å RMS, adequate for Longwave and Midwave Infrared applications, but insufficient for Near IR and visible applications. With VQ, surface finishes below 30 Å are readily achievable and unlike Alumiplate™, the cycle time and cost of the VQ process closely approximates that of standard coated DPT AI6061 mirrors.
ELCAN Optical Technologies, the pioneer of DPT technology, is producing VQ products providing a competitive advantage for applications requiring broadband visible performance. VQ finishing can be applied to a whole range of reflective configurations including off-axis parabolas, aspheres, spheres, flats and toroids. To get the advantages of VQ finishing for your program specify the following on your application notes:
Electronics Manufacturing: ELCAN Optical Technologies Málaga, Spain facility provides globally competitive electronic manufacturing services supported by ELCAN's renowned optomechanical and assembly capabilities. Other value-added services are provided such as electronic design, component procurement, and final product assembly and testing. ELCAN's comprehensive EMS supports a wide range of commercial, defence, medical and automotive customers with a streamlined and reliable supply chain solution. ELCAN's technologies for PCB assembly and microelectronics fabrication include:
ELCAN Málaga adds New Capabilities! > more Optical Assemblies: The Optical Assembly Group staff is highly trained in lens mounting centration and optical alignment. Proprietary centering equipment is used to guarantee accuracy on each individual lens element when it is mounted into its cell. The capabilities of this group also include optoelectronic and optomechanical assembly, precision lens assembly, and the ability to perform fine mechanical alignment and assembly for complex instruments. For high volume production, automated alignment and test benches are available. These become dedicated for specific projects and are capable of fully computerized operation. Test Facilities and Alignment Capabilities:
Supply Chain Optimization: ELCAN offers its customers complete end-to-end production services complimented by our direct to end user distribution capabilities. ELCAN Málaga also has the capability of web-based order tracking.
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