摘要
A model is developed to improve thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates rapidly and au- tomatically using fixed shadow masks in a planetary rotation system. The coating thickness is accurately represented by a function composed of basic thickness, self-shadow effect, and shadow mask function. A type of mask with parabolic contours is proposed, and the thickness uniformity of coatings on spheri- cal substrates can be improved in a large range of ratios of clear aperture （CA） to radius of curvature （RoC） by optimizing shadow masks using a numerical optimization algorithm. Theoretically, the thick- ness uniformity improves to more than 97.5% of CA/RoC from -1.9 to 1.9. Experimentally, the thickness uniformities of coatings on a convex spherical substrate （CA/RoC = 1.53） and on a concave spherical substrate （CA/RoC=-1.65） improve to be better than 98.5% after corrected by the shadow masks.
A model is developed to improve thickness uniformity of coatings on spherical substrates rapidly and au- tomatically using fixed shadow masks in a planetary rotation system. The coating thickness is accurately represented by a function composed of basic thickness, self-shadow effect, and shadow mask function. A type of mask with parabolic contours is proposed, and the thickness uniformity of coatings on spheri- cal substrates can be improved in a large range of ratios of clear aperture （CA） to radius of curvature （RoC） by optimizing shadow masks using a numerical optimization algorithm. Theoretically, the thick- ness uniformity improves to more than 97.5% of CA/RoC from -1.9 to 1.9. Experimentally, the thickness uniformities of coatings on a convex spherical substrate （CA/RoC = 1.53） and on a concave spherical substrate （CA/RoC=-1.65） improve to be better than 98.5% after corrected by the shadow masks.
