Introduction of Antifouling Film (Apical Membrane)

2019-07-26

After the lens surface is coated with multi-layer anti-reflection film, the lens is particularly prone to stain, and stain will destroy the anti-reflection effect of the anti-reflection film. Under the microscope, we can see that the anti-reflection coating is porous, so oil stains are particularly easy to infiltrate into the anti-reflection coating. The solution is to deposit an anti-reflective film on top of it with anti-oil stain and anti-water properties. Moreover, the film is very thin, so that it does not change the optical properties of the antireflective film.


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Fluoride is the main material of anti-fouling film. There are two processing methods, one is immersion method, the other is vacuum coating, and the most common method is vacuum coating. When the anti-reflection coating is finished, fluoride can be plated on the reflective film by evaporation process. The anti-fouling film can cover the porous anti-reflection film and reduce the contact area between water and oil and lens, so that oil and water can not easily adhere to the surface of lens, so it is also called waterproof film.


Hydrophobic material agent ATS:


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For organic lenses, the ideal surface treatment system should consist of wear-resistant film, multi-layer anti-reflective film and anti-fouling film. Usually the anti-wear coating is the thickest, about 3-5 mm, the thickness of multi-layer anti-reflection coating is about 0.3 um, and the top anti-fouling wax coating is the thinnest, about 0.005-0.01 mm. In general, the wear-resistant film with silicone is coated on the lens base first, then the IPC technology is used to pre-clean the anti-reflection coating before ion bombardment. After cleaning, high hardness ZrO2 and other materials are used to vacuum coat the multi-layer anti-reflection coating. Finally, the top film with 110 contact angles is coated. The successful development of drilling composite film technology shows that the surface treatment technology of organic lenses has reached a new height.


ZrO2 coating material produced by ATS:


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