FOC’s ÅngströmLink™ web page is your connection to unique optical products to meet new and emerging technical challenges including optical plastics, hard cure, soft cure, optical fluid, optical coatings, thixotropic gels, optical polyimide, silica spheres: https://focenter.com/solutions/
- AL-62xx Series, Optical Plastic: A high purity, high refractive index, optically clear plastic. Moldable by conventional injection molding techniques. Optical transmission and environmental resistance equal to optical grade polycarbonate, with less stress birefringence than polycarbonate. Typically used for lenses in camera and video cell phones, and display backlights.
- AL-33xx Series, Hard Cure: Hard materials with Shore D durometer. All are suited to making thin films for use in PCB optical waveguides, microlens arrays, prism films, or low dielectric layers. Can be applied by spin coating. Compatible with CMOS substrates and fabrication techniques. Excellent adhesion and chemical resistance.
- AL-32xx Series, Soft Cure: Materials with a consistency approximating Jell-O (Shore 00 ~ 30). Used for bulk encapsulation where the low modulus provides stress relief from mismatches in thermal coefficients of expansion. Good adhesion to a variety of substrates and a range of refractive indices to couple the light between the two materials of the joint.
- Spheres, SIOP: ÅngströmSphere™ silica spheres are manufactured using our own proprietary technologies which allow the essential properties of amorphous silica to be combined with unique control of duplication, both in form and particle size.
- AL-52xx Series, Optical Fluid: A series of optically clear fluids used for refractive index matching between two optical elements. Good for laboratory applications and testing, when an easily reversible coupling is desirable.
- AL-7254, Optical Polyimide: A hybrid organic-inorganic polyimide composition capable of forming hard, durable, coatings on a wide variety of substrates. Coating is thermally and chemically stable, and ultra-hydrophobic.
- AL-2233, Optical Coating: A Teflon-like polymer suspended in an evaporative solvent that leaves behind an amorphous film when the solvent evaporates. Film thickness is controlled by the concentration of the dissolved polymer; standard concentrations create film thicknesses of 200nm to 10u; concentration is easily customized by the user to make any layer thickness in-between. Can be used for antireflection coating or low-surface energy masking (mold release).
- AL-12xx Series, 1-Part (non-curing gels): Also known as thixotropic gels, or greases, these are 1-part materials that flow when pressure is applied, and remain in place when the force is removed (like toothpaste). These materials are generally used to displace the air gap between two optical elements and do not form a permanent bond between the two elements; generally need other mechanical fastening to insure structural integrity of the joint. Joints interconnected in this way are easily unmade and remade.
FOC is prepared to spend time and effort sourcing the product which will meet your needs and specifications. If it is not currently available, we will contact the best company to develop that product. Variations in refractive index, viscosity, transmission vs. wavelength, custom volume or other packaging, temperature or other environmental parameters are among the custom specifications that are requested by researchers and production managers and supplied by FOC.
