The quality of high-end optical components can be severely limited by micro particles and defects in dielectric coatings, as these can lead to degraded imaging quality, increased optical loss due to absorption and scattering, or limited performance compatibility due to laser-induced damage. In this talk, two different approaches to reduce particle load and impact in optical coatings will be presented. Camera-based in-vacuum particle monitors have been developed to track the number of particles on substrates during deposition to analyze which process steps are primarily responsible for particle generation, which is particularly interesting for production-quality control and optimization. In addition, different defect-mitigation strategies during the coating process have been applied using a secondary ion-source and laser conditioning for substrate pre-treatment prior to deposition and for particle burden reduction during thin-film growth to avoid damage pre-cursors.