Optical Signature Control Materials

New technologies are desired to develop low-cost and easily applied paint coatings for thermal signature control of Air Force applications. The coating must be compatible with existing visible and microwave specifications, be applicable to a variety of substrates, and meet mechanical and environmental requirements. Constructing tailored IR pigments using then film interference filter has proved successful for a number of applications. The drawbacks are : high cost, glossy finish, and angular variability. Development the capability to construct thin film interference filter pigments on hollow glass micro-sphere substrates would have a number of advantages: the pigment design would be based on evaluating paint (pigment/binder/sub-surface) performance using standard Air Force binders, hollow-spherical pigments would float to the surface, minimizing binder absorption and produce a diffuse surface finish, the pigment could be constructed using low-cost CAD techniques. This proposal is to develop a proof-of-concept CVD coating facility to deposit thin film interference filter coatings on hollow micro-sphere pigments. Surface Optics Corporation has unique analytical design tools for developing these pigments, and in-house vacuum coating equipment that will be adapted for this program. The Phase II program would produce prototype quantities of a selected paint system.