TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: In the method of testing coating formulations: dip coating the test substrates is performed with a dip coating assembly within housing, where each of the test substrates is detachably secured to the dip coating assembly; and the dip coating of the test substrates in the coating formulations comprises (d) submerging at least a portion of each of the test substrates in one of the coating formulations with the dip coating assembly, and (e) drawing each of the test substrates from one of the coating formulations with the dip coating assembly. The method of testing coating formulations further comprises coating a second type of many of the test substrates with the selected subset of the coating formulations, where coating is performed using spin coating, spray coating or curtain coating. In the method of testing coating formulations, generating the variation between at least two of the coated substrates comprises: varying the chemical compositions of the coating formulations; varying the speed at which the test substrates are drawn from the coating formulations; or varying temperature of the coating formulations and/or temperature of the coated substrates. In the method of testing sol-gel coating formulations: each of the test substrates is detachably secured to the dip coating assembly; each of the sol-gel coating formulations comprises monomer, solvent, surfactant, viscosity modifier, crosslinking agent, accelerator, catalyst and/or porogen; and the sol-gel coating formulations are anti-reflective coating formulations. The method of testing sol-gel coating formulations further comprises: selecting a second subset of sol-gel coating formulations based on characterization results of the second screening; performing a third screening by coating many manufacturing scale substrates with the second selected subset of the sol-gel coating formulations; and annealing the sol-gel formulations after the first screening, where a further variation is introduced during annealing. The further variation introduced during annealing comprises varying an annealing temperature from one substrate to another.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The apparatus further comprises a dispensing assembly coupled to the housing and configured to dispense the coating formulations into the vessels, where the variation generating system is configured to vary the chemical compositions of the coating formulations. In the apparatus: the dip coating assembly comprises many independently controllable arms, where each of the independently controllable arms is configured to hold at least one of the test substrates, and the variation generating system is configured to vary the speed at which the test substrates are drawn from coating formulations; and the variation generating system comprises a temperature control sub-system configured to independently control temperature of each of the coating formulations and/or temperature of each of the coated substrates. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.