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Vacuum Web Coating

Blogmaster: Dr. Charles A. Bishop

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09

Handling rolls of film

Posted by Charles Bishop on January 9, 2012
How the film is handled can affect how it will run in your vacuum coating system, this may seem an obvious statement but can often be overlooked as the film is shipped or transferred from store. The aim is to not damage the core or roll in any way as it is moved around.  I have seen rolls of f...

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Posted in: Web/Tech
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19

Pinholes - seek and ye shall find!

Posted by Charles Bishop on December 19, 2011
The subject of pinholes can be contentious as it can depend on where you look and under what conditions you look as to how many and how big they appear. Pinholes can be produced by a number of different methods; coating debris that was present on the film surface that is later moved away leaving beh...

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Posted in: Measurements
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14

Sputtering gold with high target utilisation

Posted by Charles Bishop on November 14, 2011
There have been a number of presentations that have focused on the magnetron sputtering design as a method of obtaining a high target utilisation. Ideally, we would all like to have high target utilisation, but often we will trade this off against improved coating uniformity or higher deposition rat...

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Posted in: Process
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03

AIMCAL conference Reno 23-26 Oct

Posted by Charles Bishop on October 3, 2011
Hi, this is just my reminder that there is the AIMCAL annual technical conference coming up toward the end of the month at 23rd - 26th October at the Peppermill Resort Hotel in Reno. I shall be attending and giving a Short Course on the "Basics of Roll-to-Roll Vacuum Deposition." This will f...

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Posted in: Conferences & Meetings
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23

Process stability – is any vacuum process stable?

Posted by Charles Bishop on September 23, 2011
  Firstly pumping the system down is often a variable.  The pumping is balanced against the various system leaks, real and virtual, as well as the gas load from the outgassing of the substrate and system.  This outgassing is not a constant.  The rate of water outgassing from the...

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Posted in: System issues
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25

Sputter-deposition rates

Posted by Charles Bishop on August 25, 2011
I needed to find the sputter-deposition rate for a few materials.  This sounded a simple task but it was not as easy as I thought. First, there are many different ‘rates’ quoted.  Some are a just a thickness per unit time others include the power applied and expressed as a dyna...

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Posted in: Process
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16

CIGS photovoltaics – still massive growth potential

Posted by Charles Bishop on August 16, 2011
I find it both amusing and depressing to read some of the stories that hit the technical press.  A current one that falls into this category was the announcement that Veeco is getting out of the business of making and selling CIGS deposition systems.  Veeco had been buying companies to ena...

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Posted in: Markets or product info
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13

Another developing barrier-film technology

Posted by Charles Bishop on July 13, 2011
This-film technology that attracted my attention uses the layering extrusion technique to produce a series of thin barrier layers that can then be incorporated in the centre of a standard film material.  Barrier materials can have advantages when used as separate layers. If there is an easy d...

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Posted in: Materials
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10

A new film that caught my eye

Posted by Charles Bishop on July 10, 2011
The film that caught my eye is one aimed at the security market.  The idea is not new but has been around for 20 years.  Pilots flying over the Amazon rainforest noticed flashes of blue or green within the forest which for some time remained unexplained. What caused these flashes were Morp...

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Posted in: Materials
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14

A question and challenge to determine the most cost-effective barrier coating

Posted by Charles Bishop on June 14, 2011
I recently received an e-mail with the following question: What is the lowest cost solution to achieve 10-4g/m2/day water vapour transmission rate by sputtering process? Assuming this was to be on a PET substrate. No optical restrictions so metals or oxide/oxynitrides could be considered. A: I find...

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Posted in: Materials
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Blogmaster

Charles Bishop photo

Dr. Charles A. Bishop

Charles is a toolmaker by trade after completing a mechanical engineering apprenticeship. He then entered University and obtained a Bachelors degree in materials engineering with a Diploma in Industrial Studies. During his final year he first started work on vacuum based research, helping develop a process for manufacturing titanium based bone implants for tendon location. He went on to obtain a Masters degree and Doctorate following further research into vacuum deposition processes. During this time and as a postgraduate he also worked as a consultant.

Charles next spent time in industry working for various divisions of ICI including polyesters, nylon, Imagedata, Flex Products Inc., and explosives as well as contributing to other projects. In 1998 he took the opportunity to return to consultancy work and set up his own company.

Charles has more than 30 years experience in vacuum deposition mainly onto flexible webs. He has regularly contributed papers to conferences and recently has edited this blog on behalf of AIMCAL as well as being one of their presenters for various webinars and the more formal Converting School courses.

Charles has also published 2 books, Vacuum deposition onto webs, films and foils and Roll-to-roll vacuum deposition of barrier coatings.