It was at the suggestion of the ruling Prince Franz Josef ll of Liechtenstein that Dr. Max Auwärter - in cooperation with Emil G. Bührle - founded the company Balzers in the village of Balzers, in the Principality of Liechtenstein, in 1946. At that time the technology of vacuum deposition was still in its early stages. With very few exceptions, high vacuum systems were being used only in research laboratories.
Due to the lack of commercially available high vacuum equipment, Balzers had to design and build most of the required vacuum components, equipment and systems necessary for the development of its novel and proprietary thin-film coating processes.
With its acquisition of mso jena
Mikroschichtoptik GmbH in Jena, Germany, Optics Balzers is expanding its competencies and manufacturing
technologies into a unique portfolio, generating added value for customers.
Optics Balzers Jena,
formerly mso jena, was founded in 1998 as a spin-off from the Fraunhofer
Institute for Applied Optics Jena. The use and further development of
state-of-the-art coating technologies, and the close connection to industry and
research institutions in the Jena
optics cluster were key factors for its successful development. Optics Balzers
Jena is focused on the development and manufacturing of high-performance
interference filters for various applications.
Today Optics Balzers is a globally recognized leader in customized optical thin-film coatings and components for the
photonics industry.
