About Us

After spending his formative years at Vandenberg Air Force Base, EGG and UCSB, Thin Film Technology founder Jim Wafer settled in at Sloan Technology in Santa Barbara, California. It was there that he became part of a handful of innovators that developed the first E-beam and Sputtering systems of the future.

Realizing the limitless capacity for research, as well as the first development of products that these systems could produce, Jim converted his garage into his first Thin Film Technology vacuum coating lab in 1974, with two e-beam systems in full operation. Within a year he outgrew this 20' x 20' starting ground and moved his lab to an industrial parkway in Buellton, California -- the home of well-known Pea Soup Andersen's Restaurant and the ideal proximity between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Building a reputation for its visionary approach to new projects over the next ten years, Thin Film Technology then constructed the 50,000 square feet of custom facilities that house the company today.

Thin Film Technology has taken a conscious leap into the 21st century with integrity and groundbreaking ingenuity and will continue to work with the large companies that shape our present world, as well as the fledgling entrepreneurs of the future -- just as Jim Wafer once was in his garage on Elm Street almost 30 years ago.