Society of Vacuum Coaters

The Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) is a non-profit, international, professional organization for individuals involved in depositing films and coatings in vacuum or rarefied environments for surface engineering purposes.^[1] Vacuum coatings are deposited by sputtering, vacuum evaporation, ion plating, ion beam deposition, laser ablation, atomic layer deposition, or plasma arc techniques.^[2][3][4] The Society’s international membership includes scientists, engineers and technologists from industry, academic, private and national research institutes. SVC organizes technical conferences, trade exhibitions and educational programs for professionals. SVC is most known for its annual Technical Conference & Exhibition (TechCon).

SVC stays abreast of coatings and surface modification by other techniques, including atmospheric plasmas, chemical vapor deposition and printing. The scope of applications includes functional coatings used in optics, architectural & vehicle glass industry, electronics, transportation industry, aerospace, industrial, decorative products, anti-counterfeiting, military, packaging and medical fields. Examples of coating types are electrical conductors, transparent conductors, semiconductors, flexible electronics, hard coatings, vapor barriers, medical monitoring and bio-reactive films, tribological coatings for wear resistance (including diamond coatings), anti-corrosion, optical coatings for consumer products, telecom and consumer products, Low-e coatings for glazing, photovoltaic and solar coatings and smart coatings. The Society’s Corporate Sponsors include deposition equipment builders, chemical and deposition target manufacturers, vacuum components and analytical equipment manufacturers.

SVC publishes the Technical Conference Proceedings each year.^[5] Reference volumes are available in print or on-line through the SVC Website. In agreement, Elsevier publishes selected peer-reviewed papers from the TechCon in the journal of Surface and Coating Technology. SVC established the SVC Foundation in 2002 for scholarship and travel awards to the TechCon for students.

Mission Statement

To provide technical excellence by providing a global forum to inform, educate and engage the members, the technical community and the public on all aspects of vacuum coating, surface engineering and related technologies.

Our Goals

• Promote collaboration and networking
• Develop relationships between R&D, academia and manufacturers
• Promote innovation and understanding of new materials and processes
• Advance educational teaching and mentoring
• Foster technology transfer
• Scale-up deposition processes and the use of new materials and techniques
• Promote production reproducibility, quality, reliability, yield and throughput

Conferences and Exhibits

SVC’s TechCon annual conference has four days of presentations by some of the most respected vacuum coating professionals in industry and academia. Elements of the TechCon are:

• Industry exhibition, 200+ companies (deposition equipment, source material, analytical equipment)
• Over 120 Keynote, Invited and regular presentations, oral or in posters
• Technology Breakfast Forums, informal breakfast groups arranged by topics
• Lunch-time Tutorials, featuring broad technology tutorials
• Meet the Experts Corner for discussion of coating or technology questions
• Heureka! session, post deadline papers
• Tutorial Courses, in a wide variety of subjects important to the technologist
• Vendor Innovators Showcase, focusing on new products
• SVC Foundation 5K Fun Run and Golf Tournament
• Young Members Group, for collaboration and mentoring

Also, SVC organizes Topical Conferences and Workshops and participates in other technical meetings. Examples are:

• International Conference on Coatings on Glass (ICCG)
• Plasma Surface Engineering (PSE)
• International Symposium on Sputtering and Plasma Processes (ISSP)
• International Conference on Fundamentals and Industrial Application of HIPIMS
• International Conference on Metallurgical and Thin Films, ICMCTF (topical conference of ASED, a division of AVS)

SVC Publications

• SVC Bulletin, magazine – original technical articles and society/industry news (3 times/year), print and on-line
• SVC Technical Conference Proceedings (annual), print and manuscripts on-line^[5]
• SVConnections (on-line industry/academic news), on-line monthly
• SVC TECHTalk (industry blog), on-line quarterly
• SVC Digital Library of published papers (on-line)
• SVC Education Guides to Vacuum Coating Processing^[3]
• “Historical Perspectives on Decorative Vacuum Coating”^[4]

Technical Advisory Committees

These committees are responsible for organizing topical sections of the TechCon program

• Coatings and Processes for Biomedical and Environmental Applications
• Emerging Technologies
• Coatings for Energy Conversion and Related Processes
• High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS)
• Large Area Coatings
• Optical Coatings
• Plasma Processing
• Protective, Tribological and Decorative Coatings
• WebTech Roll-to-Roll coatings for High-End Applications
• HEURÉKA! Post-Deadline Recent Developments
• Technical Poster Presentations

Awards

• Nathaniel H. Sugerman Award for distinguished achievement
• Mentor Award for significant contributions to the Society

Education Program

• Technical Conference Tutorial Courses (tutorials on basic and advanced topics)
• On-Location Tutorial program (Instructors present tutorials at companies)
• Distance Learning Self-paced Tutorial (on-line)
• Live and On-Demand Webinars
• International Outreach (SVC tutorials are presented at other international conferences/workshops)

References

External links

• Official website