Interview | Peter Egerton, EVP Buisness Development, Alluxa, Inc.

Joe Kunsch, expert in IR technologies with more than 30 years experience in this field interviewed Peter Egerton, EVP Business Development in 2017

What has been your first experience with infrared?

Personally, I stepped into LWIR it just recently. My first experience with the IR photonics was in the telecom space in the late 1990’s and 2000’s. We were engaged to do some coatings in the 8 – 12 μm region and came up with a really nice process with some good results. However, LWIR is still relatively new for us as a company. Near infrared has been part of our daily business since the company was founded.

Has there been somebody like an infrared guide to you?

Apart from you Joe? Yes, our CEO Mike Scobey has decades of experience in the IR throughout his career.

What has changed in the infrared over the years?

My first answer is: Not much, at least not in terms of the coatings. There have always been just a handful of players you run into inside U.S. New players are needed and that is what brought us into the wavelength region to develop a coating process. We hope to push the boundaries of performance as we mature in the wavelength range.

Basically, infrared products have been based on mature technologies. Do you think, there is still any innovation possible?

Yes of course! Innovation is always in concert with customer needs and we have some customers with very demanding requirements. As a result, we developed our long wave IR coating process as a mixture of our proprietary coating technologies. As far as near infrared is concerned, we are targeting for more layers that result in better performance in combination with faster deposition without compromising basic quality. We are focusing on things that can be made at reasonable pricing as well as things that will challenge the process. Not all potential innovations in our industry do make their way into production though. Just remember the discussion on rugate designs few years ago: They are dificult to make and therefore expensive and still exotic. This is one reason why we do not use this approach.

Is there anything specific on your location or your county? Does it have any influence on the company?

Our culture is close to Silicon Valley and has strong roots in Ca

Please imagine your company and/or your products as some
sort of art object or performance or even music. What is your first association?
Good question, I never thought about this before. My first association is wine, since Sonoma county is a wine country. It takes lots of passion and precision to make a good product. Isn’t good wine a form of art as well?

How do you think IR industry and technologies have evolved from 2015 - 2017?

There is a little bit more demand in the mid and long wave. However, so far it is primarily government and defense jobs. Technology transfer into the commercial space needs to catch up.