ARC (Anti-Reflective Coating)

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Anti-reflective coatings are films that are processed on to various substrates to significantly reduce the visible light reflection of the substrate. Typical glass (4.5~5%) and polymer (5~6%) substrates reflect a fair proportion of the light falling directly on them, with the reflectance increasing as the viewing angle increases. This occurs at both surfaces - so in total at least 9-10% of sunlight falling on, for example, a pair of glasses, is reflected. This leads to glare from reflection, reduced visibility through the lens, reduction in image quality and other negative effects.

Because of the nature of glass and polymer substrates it is difficult to reduce the reflectance to lower than 1.3% per surface with a single film coating - as, to date, coatings with the correct refractive index and thickness have not been available. To reduce this further requires expensive multilayer solutions (eg: PVD, CVD).

Oxford Advanced Surfaces technology allows a single layer film with properties tailored exactly to the individual substrate to be deposited. This film increases transmission by at least 6% and reduces reflection per surface to <0.5%. This film is based on a nanoparticle system immobilised in a binder which is chosen for its compatibility to the substrate of interest. It is deposited by simple wet chemical dipping processing and conventional curing and low temperature drying techniques.