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Expert has spent decades designing, developing, and producing optical thin films. He is noted for his understanding of design and producibility of optical coatings. He has worked with most optical vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes and a few chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes. Expert has hands-on skill and experience with a variety of related development and production equipment. He has produced a variety of coatings from complex designs of over 100 layers to simple single layer coatings (and also industrial vacuum metalizing). He has extensively used resistance sources, electron beam deposition, sputtering, ion assisted deposition (IAD), and have some experience with reactive low-voltage ion plating (RLVIP). The development of robust optical coating processes is one of his specialties. He has found the design of experiments methodology (DOE) to be a great help in maximizing the process knowledge with the minimum number of test runs. He has become an expert in the application of DOE to optical coating development or refinement. He was responsible for the design and development of an automated continuous in-line optical coating system and processes for the multilayer coating of injection molded optics.


Expert has spent his career developing optical instruments from concept through field service. This has been with a strong emphasis on designing what can be built, and focused on the ease and minimized cost of manufacture, assembly, and alignment. He has very broad experience as an individual contributor in optical system development, design, and production. He has hands-on skill and experience with most related industrial production equipment. Expert has an extensive data base from personal experience and that of others relating to tolerance limits and costs versus tolerance in optical production. He is an acknowledged expert in optical tolerancing to achieve the required performance at minimum cost. The first chapter in his Handbook of OptoMechanical Engineering is witness to that work. He has designed and developed new instruments, test equipment, and new processes in optical instrument production for a broad gamut of systems. These systems include: a great variety of military optical systems, a superachromatic multi-focal-length missile tracking telescope mentioned in the above book, space optics such as a dual field space sextant, stellar geodetic optics, ultraprecise lens alignment system, grating spectrophotometer, Fourier transform diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer, film thickness monitor, aspheric cockpit projection collimator (HUD), tank gunnery simulator (patented), holographic lens, submarine periscope simulator, flickerless stop-motion projection system, 180 degree anamorphic lenses (patented), low cost portable emissometer and solar absorptance meter, computer automated performance evaluator for raceboats, zoom lens for missile guidance simulation. He has been a consultant to most of the major aerospace companies over many years and also worked with many smaller companies in commercial and government support fields.

Expert has spent several decades of his career developing optical instruments from concept through field service. This has been with a strong emphasis on designing what can be built, and focused on the ease and minimized cost of manufacture, assembly, and alignment. He has very broad experience as an individual contributor in optical system development, design, and production. He has hands-on skill and experience with most related industrial production equipment. He has designed and developed new instruments, test equipment, and new processes in optical instrument production for a broad gamut of systems. These include: a great variety of military optical systems, a diffraction limited superachromatic multi-focal-length missile tracking telescope with superb environmental stability, space optics such as a dual field space sextant, stellar geodetic optics, ultraprecise lens alignment system, grating spectrophotometer, Fourier transform diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer, film thickness monitor, aspheric cockpit projection collimator (HUD), tank gunnery simulator (patented), holographic lens, submarine periscope simulator, flickerless stop-motion projection system, 180 degree anamorphic lenses (patented), low cost portable emissometer and solar absorptance meter, computer automated performance evaluator for raceboats, zoom lens for missile guidance simulation.

Expert learned the fine points of optical spectroscopy on the first recording spectrophotometer from its inventor, Prof. A. C. Hardy. He has used a variety of commercially built optical spectrophotometers for decades as applied to the measurement of optical and infrared coatings and materials. Expert has developed attachments to obtain special optical measurements with such instruments. He has designed and built several conventional grating/prism systems, but most notably, has developed and produced the first Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer with an integrating sphere for the 2-20 micron spectral region. This system was also a true double beam system for photometric stability, which no others have ever been. The first of these units was used to develop the Shuttle reentry ceramic tiles at NASA Ames Research Center. Later units were used by the US Army and Air Force for IR camouflage development and thermal control coatings on land, air and space vehicles. Two units were key contributors to the development of efficient solar collector coatings. Expert has expertise in optical spectrophotometry/spectroscopy in the instrumentation development and use, but also in visible and infrared properties of optical coatings and materials (both diffuse and specular).

He is actively engaged as a consultant to a long established optical coating firm on design and process matters, proposals and bidding, and in house training.He has helped rectify a production stopping optical coating process problem at a division of one of the oldest optical companies in the US. He advised on automated in-line coating system equipment and process development.He is a consultant (non exclusive) on DWDM filter design and production to a large communications component firm.He advises a world leader in commercial optical instruments on optical coating tolerances and specifications, limitations, and measurments.He performed extensive literature search and analysis of data using design of experiments (DOE) methodology for client in field of new optical/tribological coatings.