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News
December 15, 2011
Moorestown-Based Quantum Coating, Inc. Visited By New Jersey Lt. Governor Kim GuadagnoLt. Governor Kim Guadagno recently visited Quantum Coating, Inc., a Moorestown, New Jersey manufacturer of thin film optical coatings, as part of the 100 Businesses Tour initiative. During her visit, the Lt. Governor met with executives, toured the facility, and gained insight into the company's recent work on the James Webb Space Telescope. Quantum Coating Inc. is pleased to announce that the company was recently chosen by the New Jersey Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s office to participate in the Lt. Governor’s 100 Businesses Tour. Under the statewide 100 Businesses initiative, the Lt. Governor visited businesses throughout the state, focusing on industries and companies that have traditionally been the foundation of economic growth in New Jersey, as well as those that will be critical in gaining an edge in today’s competitive business economy. During her visit to Quantum Coating on October 12, 2011, the Lt. Governor met with management to discuss ways the administration can better engage businesses and foster a partnership that promotes industrial growth and continued employment within the state. Lloyd Oxford, a business advocate for The New Jersey Business Action Center, was in attendance at the meeting and was identified as a main point of contact for Quantum Coating’s future business needs. The Lt. Governor also toured the facility, inquiring about the highly specialized thin film optical coating products Quantum Coating produces, for which the company recently received recognition upon completion of its four year participation in the project with NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope. To complete this project, Quantum Coating technicians applied a proprietary gold film, 200 times thinner than a human hair to 21 mirrors of the telescope. The film will serve to reflect infrared light that has traveled through space and time, allowing instruments aboard the telescope to detect the most distant objects in the universe. “We were so very pleased to have the Lieutenant Governor visit our facility and engage in a direct and open dialogue with members of our staff,” reports Dan Patriarca, President of Quantum Coating, Inc. “It gave us an opportunity to hear first-hand about the initiatives the current administration is taking and the programs available to create an environment that permits our company to be more competitive in the marketplace. In our twenty one year history, we have never experienced an administration so engaged in creating a business-friendly environment.” Quantum Coating specializes in the manufacturing of thin film optical coatings for use on Human Interface Displays, space based and ground based telescopes for commercial and military applications. Quantum Coating currently employs 33 staff members, occupying 48,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Moorestown, New Jersey. October 12, 2011 Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation recognizes Quantum Coating for their Excellence in Performance.
Dr. Ritva Keski-Kuha (JWST Deputy OTE Manager) from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center was also on hand to address the group. The presentation concluded with an excellent dissertation given by Dr. Charles Bowers (Research Astrophysicist) from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center detailing exactly what the James Webb Space Telescope would do to further our knowledge of the universe.
“The James Webb Space Telescope is a collaborative effort involving the finest scientists, engineers and manufacturers from around the world," remarked Quantum President, Dan Patriarca. " It has truly been a pleasure to work with this fine group of professionals from Ball Aerospace, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Northrop Grumman. Quantum Coating Completes Gold Mirror Coatings for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with 100% Success
Quantum Coating, Inc is pleased to announce a milestone in both optical coating and space exploration: The successful gold mirror coating on all flight optics for the Webb Telescope program. Over the past 15 months twenty-one of the most sophisticated and near irreplaceable optical elements were treated with Quantum's unique gold deposition process. All coatings were completed on schedule, meeting every requirement on every mirror. Finishing all mirror coatings on schedule is another major success story for the Webb telescope mirrors" (Lee Feinberg, NASA). It represents not just the coating event, but the completion of a huge engineering project" (John Mather, senior project scientist, JWST). The principal assembly is the 6.5m Primary Mirror, which is an array of 18 hexagons, each 1.5m across and made from light weighted beryllium (Be). The telescope also has Secondary, Tertiary and Fine Steering mirrors. Transforming these mirrors from metal blanks took multiple trips across the US as they were machined, ground, polished and tested. The mirrors then traveled to Moorestown, NJ for the final, critical application of Quantum's proprietary reflective gold coating: a 120nm thick film that boosts the infrared reflectance to 99%. 
The JWST demanded near-perfect precision in every aspect of the project, from handling the large, almost irreplaceable Be substrates, to achieving near-perfect thickness uniformity over 1.5m curved surfaces. Quantum delivered on each requirement while managing film reflectance, stress and durability with the ability to survive cryogenic cycling to near absolute zero. We are very proud," said Quantum President Dan Patriarca, "not just of our successful coating effort, but that we were able to play a very significant role in a scientific program of this magnitude. The technical challenges of this program, uniformity of less then 10nm over a 1.5M curved surface, high reflectivity from 0.8 to 26 microns and survivability in the extreme environment of outer space to name a few, presented a daunting task for our team. The successful completion of this program without error or exception has affirmed our competency and ability to meet such demands. It also expands our experience to take on similarly challenging programs in the future. We look forward to moving beyond this program and establishing ourselves as a premier coating house to the scientific community. Quantum's involvement began in 2001, when the first gold coated Be samples were produced and dropped in liquid nitrogen, demonstrating their ability to withstand cryogenic temperatures. At that time, the program was known as Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), replacing the venerable Hubble Telescope. In 2007 Quantum was awarded the contract for gold coatings on the telescope, by then known as James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), named for the NASA administrator. Over the next two years, Quantum expanded to meet its new needs, investing in a new 1800ft2 Class 1000 cleanroom facility, a custom designed 96" coating chamber and a metrology laboratory with a variety of specialized instruments for testing reflectance, thickness, stress, roughness and cryo-cycling. Four years later the investment has proved to be well worth it: the final primary segment was coated last month, bringing to a spectacularly successful end Quantum's 10 year involvement in the Webb Telescope program. LINKS:James Webb Space Telescope Overview:The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Read more... Observatory: The Optical Telescope Element (OTE)The Optical Telescope Element (OTE) is the eye of the James Webb Space Telescope Observatory. The OTE gathers the light coming from space and provides it to the science instruments. Webb needs a large mirror to collect as much light as possible to see galaxies from the beginning of the Universe. Read more June, 2010
On June 24th, 2010 the first full size (1.5m) hexagonal beryllium primary mirror segment was coated with protected gold at Quantum Coating Incorporated. This represents the culmination of a two-year effort and is the final major milestone in our program to develop and qualify the gold coatings to be used on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The preliminary segment, known as the Engineering Development Unit (EDU) will not become part of the telescope’s primary array, which consists of 18 almost identical hexagons, but will be used for ground based testing and will serve as a spare. The EDU will be used for evaluation: before proceeding with the primary segments it is critical to verify that the combination of our high-reflectance gold coating with light-weighted Beryllium mirror technology performs as predicted in all respects. Several important performance elements – such as cryogenic cycling, durability, stress and reflectance - had already been demonstrated in the course of prior qualifying stages and the successful coating of the Tertiary Mirror in April of this year. The full-size EDU brought additional critical requirements into play: control of thickness uniformity over the 1.5m off-axis parabolic surface, and control of the coated aperture to within a fraction of a millimeter along the curved edges of the hexagon. Both aspects were successfully demonstrated through the innovative design and meticulous attention to detail that has become hallmarks of Quantum’s Aerospace Division. The Webb telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Several innovative technologies have been developed for JWST. These include a folding, segmented primary mirror, adjusted to shape after launch; ultra-lightweight beryllium optics; detectors able to record extremely weak signals, microshutters that enable programmable object selection for the spectrograph; and a cryocooler for cooling the mid-IR detectors to 7K. Looking forward, the next flight optic, the Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) will be coated in July, followed by the first of the Primary Mirror Segments in September 2010. Launch is scheduled for 2014. For more about JWST, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html May, 2009 
In May 2009 the JWST chamber was used to coat two 1.5m zerodur telescope mirrors with our FSS99-106 protected silver. The coatings were uniform to within 2% across the full clear aperture and met all durability and reflectance requirements. This not only demonstrated the operational readiness of the machine, but also served as an extreme load test of the substrate rotation assembly: the combined weight of each glass optic in its fixture approached 2,500lbs, more than 6 times the projected weight of a JWST Primary Segment when fully fixtured. Coatings on JWST telescope optics will start later this year.
September, 2007 
QCI is awarded the contract to coat the primary mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The 6.5 meter primary will be comprised of 18 1.5 meter beryllium segments, each of which will be coated with a Denton proprietary gold coating at QCI “This is a great day for our company”, said QCI President Dan Patriarca. “It is a testament to our longstanding reputation in the aerospace arena and a credit to everyone in the Quantum/Denton organization. We are very excited to be involved in the JWST program” JWST will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Several innovative technologies have been developed for JWST. These include a folding, segmented primary mirror, adjusted to shape after launch; ultra-lightweight beryllium optics; detectors able to record extremely weak signals, microshutters that enable programmable object selection for the spectrograph; and a cryocooler for cooling the mid-IR detectors to 7K. The long-lead items, such as the beryllium mirror segments and science instruments, are under construction. All mission enabling technologies will be demonstrated by January 2007. The Launch is planned for 2013. For more about JWST, visit:
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html
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Thirteen members of the Quantum Coating Inc. team were recognized by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. for their "Outstanding Contribution to the Success of the JWST Program" . Ball Aerospace, providing the advanced optical technology and lightweight mirror system for the James Webb Space Telescope, contracted Quantum Coating in 2007 to provide the gold mirror coating for the 21 flight mirrors in the JWST program. In September, Quantum completed the program on schedule, meeting every requirement on every mirror.
Ben Gallagher ( Telescope Manager), Tracy Copp (Sr. Materials Engineer), and Rob Pollard (Mission Assurance Manager) of Ball Aerospace presented each member of the QCI Mirror Coating Team with a commemorative plaque accompanied by a certificate highlighting this successful accomplishment. Quantum’s President, Dan Patriarca was then presented with a plaque for Quantum to display with pride as the James Webb Project moves into its next stage of development.
“Dr. Bowers' presentation helped us to better understand how this telescope is going to be used, as well as to visualize the types of objects it will help our scientists identify,” commented Linda Rosenblum, Director of Customer Sales. 
