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There are times when off-the-shelf products cannot meet the challenge, and that’s where Inrad Optics’ team of engineers can help. When it comes to technically demanding applications, Inrad Optics’ expertise in materials, fabrication, and metrology gives your custom design an edge in performance and quality. Our team includes physicists, mechanical and optical engineers, and fabrication technicians all ready to put their experience to the test. With your imagination and our optics knowledge, you’ll be able to get exactly what you need— maximum performance in a customized footprint.

What Inrad Optics Can Offer

Inrad Optics fabricates custom optics from an assortment of materials. Planar, prismatic and spherical components are fabricated from glass, crystal, metal, and semiconductor materials, and coated for specific wavelengths across a broad spectrum. Our technicians hold figure tolerances of 1/20th wave or better, angular tolerances of < 1 arc second and surface quality of 10/5 or better, depending on substrate properties.

Windows

We fabricate a variety of EO/IR windows and EMI-shielded window assemblies, interferometer reference and transmission flats, wedges, reticles, etalons and filters, all to high quality standards. All flats are fabricated, polished, coated and tested in-house, ensuring traceability and satisfaction with every product.

Mirrors

In addition to designing traditional glass mirrors, Inrad Optics employs proprietary single-point diamond machining and optical polishing methods to produce precision metal mirrors used in space telescopes and scanning systems. We work in an array of materials including aluminum and beryllium to produce spherical and aspherical off-axis components ready for opto-mechanical assembly.

Prisms

We offer custom dispersive, reflective and birefringent prisms in a variety of classical geometries including Porro, Penta, Wollaston, Rochon, Nomarski, Glan-Thompson and Glan-Taylor. In addition to monolithic prisms and contacted or cemented prism assemblies, Inrad Optics has experience in building high precision Risley prism steering assemblies.

Beamsplitters

Inrad Optics offers polarizing and non-polarizing plate beamsplitters as well as multi-element beamsplitter assemblies, all fabricated,finished, and tested in-house. We offer optically contacted assemblies, cemented assemblies, verification of beam deviation, custom shapes and sizes, with hyperspectral coatings.

Lenses

Our engineers produce custom lenses that fit demanding specifications, using CNC grinding and polishing as well as traditional spindle polishing. All lenses are fabricated, polished and coated in our own facilities, ensuring complete traceability and quality.

Waveplates

Inrad Optics manufactures custom waveplates in a variety of materials and configurations, including ultra-thin zero-order waveplates contacted to BK7 or UVFS carrier plates, and air spaced, contacted and cemented assemblies.

Optical Assembly

In order to deliver the performance desired, nearly all metal and crystal optics require installation into a higher level assembly. At Inrad Optics, we specialize in opto-mechanic and electro-optical assemblies and subsystems to achieve the tightest alignment, dimensional tolerance and performance specifications.

There are three main types of assembly work carried out at Inrad Optics: contacting, cementing and mechanical mounting. Inrad Optics uses optical contacting as an essential step in the manufacture of many types of prism assemblies and components such as zero-order waveplates. Cementing is used for a variety of glasses and crystals not suited to optical contacting. Inrad Optics is a systems manufacturer as well as an OEM optics supplier. Mounting optical elements into mechanical housings is a function we perform routinely.

Our in-house optical assembly capabilities and expertise include:

• Design for manufacturing and assembly
• Optical interface optimization
• 3D modeling with SOLIDWORKS®
• Fixture design and development
• Electronics integration
• CNC machining of mating components
• Optical bonding and contacting
• Laser alignment capabilities

Testing

Is it time to test your custom component? Let Inrad Optics take care of that. We test our custom optics in the same place you use them —the real world.

Our third party certifications and testing capabilities include the following:

• DOD and ASTM specifications
• MIL-PRF-13830B and ISO 10110
• Environmental stress and screening
• Mechanical shock and vibration
• Thermal testing and humidity verification
• Abrasion and durability testing
• Laser damage certification

These methods adhere to such industry standards as Mil-C 13830, and we have the added advantage of knowing that every test grants more knowledge, no matter the result.

Application Examples

Stress free assembly for transmission window.

External Flight Window Designed for High Resolution Airborne Imaging

When it comes to optical assembly, a challenge is balancing mechanical specifications with optics, specifications that can often be at odds with each other. For example, a recent case required an external flight window for high resolution airborne imaging.

Optical requirements included flatness, visible and near infrared transmission passbands, coating uniformity and environmental durability. Unfortunately, the assembly also had unexpected mechanical design issues. These issues were identified and fixed as we worked through and tested the design.

When Optical Assemblies Raise Mechanical Questions

As we began the project, we knew it was important to select the best raw materials, surface treatments, geometry and packaging to ensure the tightest alignment and dimensional tolerance to meet the demanding optical wavefront distortion requirements. In addition, we also had to ensure that the product could maintain performance over the full range of extreme temperatures.

Management of the interfaces between materials of dissimilar thermal expansion coefficients and extensive analysis of thermal, optical and mechanical test parameters to mimic field conditions were compiled, and we were faced with several questions. How fast do we heat the assembly? How uniform should the heat reaction be? What should be heated first: the window or the frame?

Problems Arise During Functional Testing

When testing the aerospace window, we anticipated that it would cool or heat uniformly. However, during testing a pronounced thermal gradient was revealed. To compensate for this, insulation was added to the top of the frame to achieve stable results in the second round of attempts. This ensured that the custom assembly would work in its real world application.

Exploded view of Inrad Optics designed radiation detector assembly.

Manufacturing Challenges of Metal Telescope Mirrors

Metal telescope mirrors have stringent quality requirements due to how critical they are to high precision imaging, aerospace and defense applications.

End-to-end Manufacturing

At Inrad Optics, we manage all aspects of the fabrication process, and because of this we can predict the performance of each complex mirror we design. All operations for machining, plating, thermal cycling, polishing and thin film coating of off-axis aspheric mirrors are created entirely in-house, allowing us to control every aspect of production to guarantee the highest quality.

Proven Testing

Our expertise in testing complex, off-axis mirrors is extensive, and we use several proven methods. For more complex or longer focal length aspheric mirrors, we can use a computer generated hologram to measure the surface shape by mimicking a perfect surface within the interferometer image. For less complex shapes and designs we may use a Hindle sphere, null lens or a simple ball test.

Operational Stability

Many metal and telescope mirrors operate in extreme conditions, and the fabrication process must involve stabilizing the mirror to avoid operational distortion. Thermal processes and low stress plating techniques can ensure optimal performance. In addition we have the required equipment to optically inspect at extreme temperatures.

Details

President’s Letter in 2021 Annual Report

→ Download The Letter

Inrad Optics Overview, Shareholders Annual Meeting June 9, 2022

→ Download PDF Version 

President’s Letter in 2023 Annual Report

→ Download The Letter

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Purposes of the Nominating Committee

The purposes of the Nominating Committee are:

• to consider proposals made by shareholders and others to nominate specific individuals to the board of directors of Inrad Optics, Inc. (the “Company”);
• to identify qualified individuals for membership on such board (the “Board”); and
• to recommend to the Board the director nominees for election at each annual meeting of shareholders and at each other meeting of shareholders at which directors are to be elected.

Membership of the Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee:

• shall consist of not less than four independent members of the Board, the exact number to be established by the board of directors from time to time;
• shall consist solely of individuals who meet the independence standards set forth in Securities and Exchange Commission rules and in the listing standards, if any, applicable to the Company; and
• shall consist solely of members who are appointed by, and who may be removed by, the Board.

Criteria for Nomination to the Board of Directors

Each individual nominated by the Nominating Committee to serve on the Board of Directors shall, in the Nominating Committee’s opinion, satisfy the following criteria (the “Minimum Criteria”) together with such other criteria as shall be established by the Nominating Committee:

• such nominee shall satisfy any legal requirements applicable to members of the Board;
• such nominee shall have business or professional experience that will enable such nominee to provide useful input to the Board in its deliberations;
• such nominee shall have a reputation, in one or more of the communities serviced by the Company and its subsidiaries, for honesty and ethical conduct;
• such nominee shall have a working knowledge of the types of responsibilities expected of members of the board of directors of a public corporation; and
• such nominee shall have experience, either as a member of the board of directors of another public or private corporation or in another capacity, which demonstrates the nominee’s capacity to serve in a fiduciary position.

Procedures to be followed with Respect to the Submission of Names for Consideration by the Nominating Committee

The following procedures (the “Minimum Procedures”) shall be utilized in considering any candidate for election to the Board at an annual meeting, other than candidates who have previously served on the Board or who are recommended by the Board. A nomination must be delivered to the Secretary of the Company at the principal executive offices of the Company not later than the close of business on the ninetieth (90th) day nor earlier than the close of business on the one hundred twentieth (120th) day prior to the first anniversary of the preceding year's annual meeting; provided, however, that if the date of the annual meeting is more than thirty (30) days before or more than sixty (60) days after such anniversary date, notice to be timely must be so delivered not earlier than the close of business on the one hundred twentieth (120th) day prior to such annual meeting and not later than the close of business on the later of the ninetieth (90th) day prior to such annual meeting or the close of business on the tenth (10th) day following the day on which public announcement of the date of such meeting is first made by the Company. In no event shall the public announcement of an adjournment or postponement of an annual meeting commence a new time period (or extend any time period) for the giving of a notice as described above. Such notice shall set forth as to each person whom the proponent proposes to nominate for election as a director (a) all information relating to such person that is required to be disclosed in solicitations of proxies for election of directors in an election contest, or is otherwise required, in each case pursuant to Regulation 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (including such person's written consent to being named in the proxy statement as a nominee and to serving as a director if elected), and (b) information that will enable the Nominating Committee to determine whether the candidate satisfies the Minimum Criteria and any Additional Criteria (as defined below) established by the Nominating Committee.

In the event that a director is to be nominated at a special meeting of shareholders or is to be elected by the Board, the Nominating Committee shall develop procedures designed to conform, as nearly as practicable, to the procedures applicable to elections of Board members at annual meetings.

The Nominating Committee may, but shall not be required to, develop other procedures (the “Additional Procedures”) designed to supplement the Minimum Procedures.

Processes to be followed in considering Candidates

Candidates to serve on the Board shall be identified from such sources as shall be available to the Nominating Committee, including without limitation recommendations made by shareholders.

There shall be no differences in the manner in which the Nominating Committee evaluates nominees recommended by shareholders and nominees recommended by the committee or management, except that no specific process shall be mandated with respect to the nomination of any individuals who have previously served on the Board. The evaluation process shall include (i) a review of the information provided to the Nominating Committee by the proponent, (ii) a review of reference letters from at least two sources determined to be reputable by the Nominating Committee and (iii) a personal interview of the candidate, together with a review of such other information as the Nominating Committee shall determine to be relevant.

Duties of the Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee shall:

• determine whether other criteria (the “Additional Criteria”), beyond the Minimum Criteria, should apply in nominating members of the Board, such Additional Criteria to
  • reflect, at a minimum, all applicable laws, rules, regulations and listing standards, if any, applicable to the Company, and
  • take into account a potential candidate’s experience, areas of expertise and other factors relative to the overall composition of the board of directors;
• determine whether the Minimum Procedures should be supplemented with Additional Procedures relating to the information to be submitted to the Nominating Committee regarding prospective candidates;
• annually review the size, composition and needs of the Board and make recommendations to the Board;
• recommend to the Board the director nominees for election at the next annual meeting of shareholders;
• consider and recommend candidates for appointment to the Board to the extent vacancies arise between annual meetings of shareholders;
• consider director candidates submitted by shareholders and other third-parties, in accordance with the Minimum Procedures and any Additional Procedures adopted by the Nominating Committee; and
• annually review the Nominating Committee charter and recommend to the Board any changes it deems necessary or desirable.

Meetings of the Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee shall meet as often as necessary to carry out its responsibilities, but not less than once each year. At the discretion of the chairperson of the Nominating Committee, but at least once each year for all or a portion of a meeting, the members of the Nominating Committee shall meet in executive session, without any members of management present.

Additional Authority of the Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee shall have the authority, in its discretion, to retain outside counsel and other advisors.