Denton Vacuum, LLC Provides Integrity System for WSO-UV

It’s not every day that one of your products gets used on a giant telescope in space. But that’s exactly what happened to Denton Vacuum, a designer and manufacturer of systems that deposit ultra-thin metallic and dielectric coatings.

In an official press release, Denton Vacuum announced on Oct 16, 2013 that it has provided its Integrity System for the World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV). According to the press release, the system is being used to provide precision coatings for the space exploration project backed by Spain and the Russian Federation. The project is scheduled to launch in 2016.

The WSO-UV is an exciting space project. As impressive as the Hubble Space Telescope, the orbital Observatory will be created around a large telescope with a 17 meter focal length. Although it might be as large as the Hubble, it definitely exceeds its capabilities. According to the project website, the purpose of the telescope is to “study the Universe in the 115-310 nm ultraviolet wavelengths range.” The new telescope exceeds the Hubble in spectroscopic capabilities.

Although it is a joint project, Russia is manufacturing the telescope, the main highlight of the observatory. How is Denton involved in the program? The company is supporting the project through its customer, SIA Luch, which is in charge of coating the primary and secondary mirrors of the telescope. SIA Luch will be using Denton’s Integrity System, a vacuum evaporation system, to get the job done.

In the press release, President of Denton Vacuum, Vince McGinty had this to say about the project: “Precision optics is a core focus of Denton Vacuum.” He added, “Projects like these demonstrate the wide scale of our capabilities. They also illustrate a trend in which our customers are increasingly requiring systems and processes to support precision optics that operate outside of the visual range.”

According to the press release, Denton’s Integrity system is company’s “flagship evaporation platform. The company also creates other systems, including ion beam deposition systems.

Also in the press release, McGinty said, “Denton is supporting challenging applications in both the UV and IR, and developing new products to further our goal of turning our customer’s most challenging technical barriers into technical and commercial breakthroughs.”

In addition to the Integrity System, Denton offers the Explorer, Benchtop Turbo, Desktop Pro, DV-502, and many other machines. The company specializes in thermal evaporation, e-beam evaporation, ion-beam-assisted evaporation, magnetron sputtering (including reactive sputtering), plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD), ion etch and ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD).

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This article was sponsored by Denton Vacuum, LLC, a leading source for thin film deposition systems. See how barriers become breakthroughs by visiting Dentonvacuum.com.