ITO/Ag/ITO (IAI) multilayer coatings were designed for spectral beam splitter applications and these coatings were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering method. The thicknesses of the component layers, namely, Ag and ITO were varied to achieve high visible transmittance, high NIR-IR reflectance and optimum cut-off wavelength. The optimized ITO/Ag/ITO exhibits high visible transmittance (similar to 88%) and high NIR-IR reflectance (>90%) with an optimum cut-off wavelength (similar to 900 nm). A novel chemical etching method was used to improve the transmittance of the plain glass substrate. The optimized IAI multilayer coating deposited on single side etched glass substrate resulted in increase in transmittance (similar to 91%), which is due to the nano-porous morphology of the etched glass substrate. The angular and polarization dependence studies of IAI multilayer coatings were also studied in detail. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.