Thin film design software for optical coatings
Thin Film Forge designs, optimizes, tolerances and manufactures optical interference coatings in the browser: anti-reflection coatings, band-pass, edge and notch filters, and mirrors, from the UV to the long-wave infrared. Every design and production module is in one published price.
Design any optical coating
- Anti-reflection coatings: V-coats, quarter–quarter and quarter–half–quarter AR, visible and NIR broadband AR (BBAR), dual-line laser AR, and infrared AR on germanium, silicon and ZnSe.
- Optical filters: long- and short-wave pass edge filters, hot and cold mirrors, dichroic beamsplitters, single- and multi-cavity Fabry–Pérot band-pass filters for telecom and NDIR gas sensing, and rugate and quarter-wave notch filters.
- Mirrors: quarter-wave dielectric high reflectors, laser mirrors and harmonic separators, protected silver and enhanced aluminum.
- Graded-index (GRIN) and rugate layers, porous films, anisotropic layers, coatings on both faces and coherent or incoherent substrates.
A library of 37 designs from the literature to start from, and 153 dispersive materials: glasses and crystals, oxide and fluoride films, semiconductors and metals, plus your own measured n,k data.
Optimization and synthesis
Refine thicknesses against targets on reflectance, transmittance, absorptance, optical density, color, group delay and GDD, phase and retardance, or the electric field in the coating for laser-damage design, over any range of angles and polarizations. Needle optimization adds layers where they help; synthesis builds a design from the specification and the materials you can deposit, including band-pass prototypes.
Tolerancing, yield, stress and temperature
Monte-Carlo yield and worst-case analysis show how thickness and index errors move the spectrum before the first run. Stress and bow, and the thermal shift of the spectrum, are computed from the same design.
From design to the coating chamber
- Optical monitoring simulation: monitor wavelength per layer, turning-point and level stops, witness chips.
- Run sheets for crystal and optical controllers, in CSV, JSON or your controller's own layout.
- Inline re-optimization during deposition: thickness and index estimates from broadband or single-wavelength monitor readings, the stop for the layer in progress, re-optimization of the remaining layers and the updated run sheet, plus virtual deposition to choose a monitoring strategy. See the worked examples on an AR coating, a mirror and a band-pass filter.
- Reverse engineering and film characterization from measured spectra and ellipsometry.
- Production SPC: measured runs judged against the released spec, with Cpk and control charts.
Design control for coating teams
Every change is a revision you can compare and reproduce exactly from frozen material data. Releases go through review and electronic signatures; released revisions produce controlled run sheets, notify your MES and update your PLM.
In the browser, or on your own network
Windows, macOS or Linux, with nothing to install and no license files. For CUI and ITAR work, Team On-Prem and Enterprise install on your own server, air-gapped if needed.
Coming from TFCalc, Essential Macleod, OptiLayer or FilmStar?
Paste or import the layer tables you already have from Macleod, TFCalc, OptiLayer, FilmStar or OpenFilters and compare the spectra on your own designs. Run sheets, monitoring simulation, reverse engineering and scripting, sold as separate modules elsewhere, are included. The feature comparison lists what each program offers. The solver is checked against independent transfer-matrix codes and published designs (Validation).
Pricing
Pro is $150 a month or $1,500 a year for one designer. Team is $5,000 a year with 3 engineers and dedicated hosting. Team On-Prem starts at $20,000 a year and Enterprise at $40,000 a year. Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee, and there is education pricing for students and academic labs. All plans.
Questions
What is thin film design software?
Software that computes the reflectance, transmittance and phase of a stack of thin layers (the transfer-matrix method) and adjusts the layer thicknesses and materials until the coating meets its targets. Designers use it for anti-reflection coatings, optical filters and mirrors; production uses it to plan and monitor the deposition.
Can it replace TFCalc, Essential Macleod or OptiLayer?
For design, refinement and needle synthesis, tolerancing, monitoring simulation, run sheets and reverse engineering, yes, and every module is in a plan. Import your layer tables and compare the spectra on your own designs.
Does it run on a Mac or Linux?
Yes, in any modern browser, with nothing to install.
Can it run offline or air-gapped?
Yes. Team On-Prem and Enterprise run on your own server with an offline license; your designs never leave your network.
Does it do in-situ re-optimization during deposition?
Yes. See Inline re-optimization and its worked examples.
Try it on your own design: open the app, or email dave@thinfilmforge.com for a demo.
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