Protective Coatings for Optical System Components Fabricated Using Ionic Self Assembled Monolayer (ISAM) Processes

F&S and Virginia Tech will cooperatively develop high performance protective ionic self-assembled monolayer (ISAM) organic/inorganic coatings for space-based optical and structural components, and work with Litton to upscale practical coating manufacturing. Revolutionary ISAM methods of creating multi-layer protective nanopartwcle films offer major advantages over con-ventional coating processes, since the process is simple, low-cost and envi-ronmentally friendly in that no volatile organic compounds are used. It may be scaled to create coatings of uniform thickness on very large or very small surfaces of metals, ceramlcs and polymers, and the surfaces do not need to be planar. Judicious selection of organic, inorganic and polymer components and their layer-by-layer self-assembly results in nanostructured films with tailored ranges of mechanical, chemical, electro-optical, mag-netic and electromagnetic properties. F&S has licensed the enabling Vir-ginia Tech patent for such processing, and would build on recent Virginia Tech ISAM laboratory demonstrations and reproduction coating prototypes. PI Michael Miller has nearly twenty years industrial experience in the manufac-turing of advanced optical and optoelectronic military and consumer prod-ucts, most recently as Advanced Products Manager for Litton Poly-Scientific. Commercialization funding is pledged by private industry and the State of Virginia. ISAM processing methods may be used to fabricate protective coatings for space-based optical components, aircraft materials, commercial and consumer optics, and window glazing. The same ISAM process may be used to fabricate conductive, mag-netic and semiconducting thin-films for widespread product applications in nanoelectronic, sensing and data storage devices.