30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

“Another advance has been in the software for the analysis of coatings. In 1956, for example, there was only one computer code in the U.S. that could analyze an optical coating and adjust the layer thicknesses to improve its performance. The personal computer and proliferation of software of the late 1980s has produced thousands of copies of codes that do the same job—but much better! ... Most of the CVD [chemical vapor deposition] and plasma CVD technology has concentrated on the deposition of oxide compounds. In the future, it is possible that CVD machinery will be developed to deposit coatings containing halogen and chalcagenide compounds, especially for the infrared.”