Zygo Corporation - Early History

Early History

ZYGO was founded in 1970 by Paul Forman, Carl Zanoni, and Sol Laufer, with financial support from Canon Inc. (Japan) and Wesleyan University (CT, USA). An initial priority for the Company was to build a world-class optical fabrication facility for producing optics with the highest precision plano surfaces and angles.

It was recognized that in order to achieve such a goal, practical and easy-to-use interferometry would have to be a standard part of the fabrication process. While there were several interferometers available on the market at that time, none had all the flexibility or features ZYGO considered important to their goal. So the decision was made to design an interferometer for in-house use. However, as the concepts for this new interferometer began to develop, ZYGO recognized that others might have a similar need, and the in-house breadboard interferometer was soon converted to a program to develop ZYGO's first product; the Model GH Interferometer, named for ZYGO's first non-founding employee, George Hunter.

In 1972, ZYGO introduced the model GH-1 interferometer system at the annual meeting of the Optical Society of America. The GH was the first commercial interferometer to incorporate an alignment system that enabled an operator to quickly obtain a fringe pattern. The system was modular in design, and incorporated the ability to use bayonet-mounted transmission elements to enable the construction of various configurations for testing different kinds of optics. Transmission elements, such as transmission flats and transmission spheres, was a new concept based upon a Fizeau unequal path configuration. This construction greatly simplified the optics required for the interferometer and significantly increased the accuracy to which an interferometer could be made to operate. In conjunction with a patented quick fringe acquisition system and alignment scheme, this provided a flexible, rapid-to-change and easy-to-use instrument.

In 1973, with 16 employees, ZYGO moved into a new 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) facility in Middlefield, Connecticut.

In 1981, with a growth rate averaging about 50% per year, ZYGO expanded to a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) facility, also in Middlefield, CT.

In December 1983, ZYGO completed its initial public offering.