Surface Optics Corporation primary facility is an 18,500 square foot building divided into engineering and administrative areas, a compartmentalized measurements lab and coating facility, manufacturing area, and electronics/optics labs. Unique to a company our size, we also have a lab which serves as an off-campus facility for the University of Irvine, with whom we collaborate on fundamental research into enhanced backscattering.
Our primary manufacturing facility is geared towards moderate production level. Included in the manufacturing area is a machine shop that allows us to quick prototyping and modifications. Volume machining is provided by several local machine shops. Our recently added leased facility is gearing up for high-volume production of the SOC-410 handheld reflectometer for the Navy.With a total of five coatings chambers, we can service both developmental and production programs. Our largest chamber regularly coats satellite antennae for a wide range of customers. The facility includes a computer-controlled grit blaster for repeatability producing control surface roughness prior to coating. The coatings lab is also capable of being locked-down to perform classified work. Our electronics development and testing lab was added to the company in 2003, providing a static-controlled environment for electronics development. All electronics developed at Surface Optics are tested and evaluated here.
All equipment necessary to fully investigate and characterize system performance is part of the lab, as is a small rework area capable of working with even the smallest surface mount components. Utilizing a mix of original and newly-added measurement equipment, SOC’s measurement lab provides a continuous stream of optical properties measurements to military, industrial, and academic customers. This lab also maintains the ability to perform classified measurements, and can be opened to the coatings facility if required to measure recently developed classified coatings.
