Calculation of film thickness for dip coated antireflective films

Antireflective films require an accurate film thickness to be able to perform optimally. The ideal thickness on most films is a quarter wavelength optical thickness (QWOT). The physical thickness of the QWOT film depends on the refractive index of the material that is being used. Each layer of the antireflective coating will have different optimal conditions for applying the film. When using the dip coating method, these conditions are withdrawal speed and concentration of solution. When using the currently accepted equations derived by Yang et al. to calculate the film thickness an error of 31.7% was noted when compared with the experimentally measured film thickness. Realising that the refractive index of the film plays a role in determining the thickness of the film, the equations were modified to take refractive index into account. Once this was taken into account, the calculated film thickness deviated from the measured film thickness by 8.7%. This error can be attributed to experimental errors which involve temperature and concentration fluctuations. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.