A method of carrying out multilayer blooming which includes means to more accurately measure the thickness of the layers during blooming which consists in the use of a stack having at least one layer thereon to enhance the light transmission or reflection difference as the blooming layers are deposited on the stack during blooming of the articles, the stack preferably comprising a substrate having precoated thereon alternately high and low refractive index materials having an optical thickness of a quarter wavelength or multiples thereof at a selected wavelength.
Precise thickness control for high performance optical coatings is provided in an optical coating system utilizing an optical monitor. The optical monitor utilizes a light source and detecting arrangement that measures a sample optical element through the expedient of a light path altering structure that is not coincident with the axis of rotation of a deposition carrousel structure that supports optical elements being coated. The light source and detector arrangements can be mounted conveniently outside of the vacuum chamber of the optical coating system.
The present invention is directed to providing thin-film-coated substrate manufacturing methods and apparatus that make it possible to manufacture large thin-film-coated substrates such as anti-reflection filters using relatively small production facilities. The thin-film-coated substrate manufacturing methods pertaining to the present invention area capable of producing thin films on substrates to be coated as large as the film formation area by using a film formation monitor or monitors placed outside of the film formation area or displaceably mobile therein, measuring the thickness of the monitor thin film or films formed on the film formation monitor or monitors, and controlling the film coating process based on the measured thickness of the monitor thin film or films. It is also capable of increasing the productivity of the manufacturing process through increased flexibility in the arrangement of substrate or substrates to be coated inside the film formation area.
