Observation and Measurement of Coating Using a Digital Microscope

• Functionalization
  Coating can be used to increase the functionality of a base material (target) such as by improving adhesion, wettability, water repellency, corrosion resistance, heat resistance, and wear resistance.
• Surface processing
  Surface processing is used to optimize the surface of a base material by coating it with a chemical agent. One example is the hydrophobic treatment of semiconductor wafers using a chemical agent before the resist coating process.
• Decoration (design)
  Coating is often used to improve the appearance (design) of a target.

• Dry coating
  Dry coating is a generic term for the technique that coats a "solid" material for functionalization of the base material. Typical coating methods include vacuum deposition, ion plating, and sputtering. Dry coating is used for coating metal materials and allows high-quality deposition without the need for a drying process. The disadvantages are the larger size of equipment, limitations on continuous production, and higher costs.
• Wet coating
  The wet coating technique is commonly used in a wide range of industrial fields. The material for functionalization is "liquefied" through the process of dissolving or dispersion into a medium. The liquefied material is uniformly applied to the base material and then dried or cured to be converted into a solid film. When it is necessary to avoid adhesion of dust or foreign particles onto the liquid film, wet coating is performed in a clean room. Unlike dry coating, this method does not require a vacuum environment but instead can be done in an atmospheric environment. A wide selection of equipment is available, and the target (base material) can be fed continuously.
  Because wet coating provides numerous advantages in high-volume production, it has been adopted widely in various coating systems.

The latest examples of coating observation and measurement using KEYENCE’s VHX Series 4K Digital Microscope are introduced below.