Novel microwave plasma sputter deposition process providing enhanced optical coatings NMPLAS

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The NMPAS project is focused on an innovation in the Materials & Advanced Manufacturing high growth sector, applying a cutting edge & innovative coating process - Microwave Plasma Assisted Sputtering (MPAS). This offers a room temperature process with up to 6-fold increase in optical coating production throughput compared to current predominantly used high temperature electron-beam deposition production processes. Moreover, MPAS enables use of an expanded range of thermally sensitive/strategic substrates, providing cost and optical coating peformance benefits. Optical coatings are predominant among high value manufacturing sectors & this project opens up new sustainable business for the partners by increasing both the UK’s & China’s competitiveness in lucrative current & emerging high margin global markets. MPAS technology transfer from Univerity of the West of Scotland (UWS) to the project’s industrial partners will enable a step-change in capability for the SMEs. With circa 90% of the worlds optical coatings produced in China, exciting new opportunities for future growth in both capital equipment and coated component sales into the Chinese market. This business-led project brings together three industrial partners from the optical coating sector, UK SMEs Helia Photonics Limited (HPL) & Orion Photonics Ltd (OPL) & Shanghai-based Jason Vacuum Co.,Ltd (SJV), with UK academic partner UWS, pioneer of the MPAS process. The project advances the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of MPAS to a late stage pre-commercial level, i.e. >TRL6.