High-performance optical coatings for the future

Precision optics is a key enabling technology in modern systems: From digital communication and autonomous systems to medical engineering, the performance of optical applications is largely determined by sophisticated coatings. At the same time, demands on manufacturing and process control are increasing. State-of-the-art coating equipment and data-driven processes make it possible to reliably produce these complex coating stacks with high precision, stability, and productivity.

Megatrends are driving demand for precision optics

Digital transformation, connected mobility, and medical engineering are dynamically driving the global photonics market. Camera systems in smartphones and vehicles, LiDAR sensors and machine vision, hyperspectral Earth observation, semiconductor manufacturing, and AR/VR are generating a rapidly growing demand for precision optical thin films. These applications require extremely tight tolerances, low losses, and high long-term stability – often on thin substrates and at the wafer scale. At the same time, expectations for productivity, automation, cleanroom integration, and data-driven process control are rising.

The market is growing correspondingly accordingly: The global photonics industry reached a volume of approximately 865 billion USD in 2022 with annual growth of about six to seven percent. In Germany, the industry generated around 50 billion EUR¹ in 2024­­. The components and materials segment is developing particularly strongly – and with it, optical filters and coatings. For these systems, this translates into increasing unit volumes, more complex designs with hundreds to thousands of layers (10 to 100 µm total thickness), as well as tighter specifications for uniformity (up to 99.8 percent) and reproducible gradient profiles. New device generations – from autonomous sensors and medical diagnostics to small satellites – also require more compact, lighter, and more energy-efficient solutions.

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¹ Spectaris, Trend Report Photonics 2025/2026

Precision meets industrial robustness  

To meet this demand in the long term, production systems are needed that combine highest precision with industrial robustness. This calls for stable sputtering processes without reactive gas drift, long tool life, simultaneous double-sided coating for thin wafers, as well as precise in-situ monitoring and software-based control. In this way, yield, throughput, and quality can be increased simultaneously – a prerequisite for competitive precision optics ”Made in Europe”. 

Trends and requirements of new device generations   

Today, wafer-level filters and filter-on-chip solutions, laser-resistant coatings for security and medical engineering, as well as multi-gradient filters for compact spectroscopy systems are particularly in demand – all of which can only be manufactured economically with reproducible high precision. At the same time, in light of global supply chain risks, the need for scalable manufacturing capacities in Europe is growing.

”Photonics is one of the key technologies of our time. High-precision optical coatings determine the performance of sensors, laser systems, and satellite instruments. With our coating technologies, we lay the groundwork for the reliable and scalable production of these optical systems.” 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Herrmann, Institute Director

Precision optics as an invisible key technology

Precision optics haave become an essential building block of modern high-tech applications: It determines the performance of LiDAR systems and machine vision, as well as the safety and image quality of medical diagnostic devices, process control in semiconductor manufacturing, and the functionality of modern AR/VR displays. Space-qualified sensor technology and future applications such as quantum communication are also virtually impossible to realize without high-precision optical coating stacks. What matters here is not only the design of complex interference coatings with hundreds to thousands of layers. Equally important is their reproducible implementation under industrial conditions – with extreme requirements for uniformity, low optical losses, stable polarization and phase responses, and high productivity. Innovative coating technologies address precisely this challenge: system platforms such as EOSS^® and EOSS^®/OPTA X combine stable sputtering processes with geometrically stable sources, low-particle system designs, and data-driven process control.