Surface Optics Corporation

Surface Optics Corporation was founded on May 5, 1977 in San Diego, California, by aerospace engineers formerly of Douglas Aircraft, Lockheed, North American Aviation, and Convair, some with Apollo-program experience, initially as an optical measurement and modeling subcontractor supporting advanced thermal and RF coating process development for General Dynamics.

Over nearly five decades the company grew into a vertically integrated manufacturer spanning three core disciplines: optical properties measurement (spectral reflectance, emissivity, transmittance, BRDF/BSDF scatter, ASTM-compliant testing), vacuum deposition thin-film coatings (including stealth/low-observable coatings, large-area and diamond-like-carbon coatings, and thermal control coatings), and electro-optics engineering (hyperspectral imaging systems, portable field instruments, SBIR/STTR-supported R&D). The company holds AS9100 certification for its five-chamber coatings lab and operates a 20,000-sq-ft San Diego facility purchased in 1998 and expanded in 2020-2021.

Notable heritage milestones include a 1983 prime contract from the Ballistic Missile Defense Office for infrared signature prediction, the 1990 launch of the SOC-100 Hemispherical Directional Reflectometer, the 1993 delivery of a thermal control coating for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, installation in 2002 of a 3.3-meter vacuum coating chamber among the largest in the US, and the application in 2007 of a specialized silver coating to NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The company continues to serve NASA/JPL, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Northrop Grumman, and the Missile Defense Agency.