Quartz crystal fabrication facility. Phase I. Final report, April 1977-September 1979

Technical Report · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5486109· OSTI ID:5486109

Ney, R. J.

The design and operation of a five chamber, interconnected vacuum system, which is capable of cleaning, plating, and sealing precision quartz crystal units in ceramic flatpack enclosures continuously in a high vacuum environment are described. The production rate design goal was 200 units per eight hour day. A unique nozzle beam gold deposition source was developed to operate for extended periods of time without reloading. Entrance and exit air lock chambers expedite the material throughput, so that the processing chambers are at high vacuum for extended periods of time. A stainless steel conveyor belt, in conjunction with three vacuum manipulators, transport the resonator components to the various work stations. The system utilizes molybdenum disulfide coated ball bearings at essentially all friction surfaces. The conveyors are capable of operating at 300/sup 0/C temperature and 10/sup -8/ Torr. Meta bellows or magnetic drives are utilized to transfer motion into the vacuum chambers. The gold sources and plating mask heads are equipped with elevators and gate valves, so that they can be removed from the system for maintenance without exposing the chambers to atmosphere. The work stations include: ultraviolet/ozone cleaning, 300/sup 0/C vacuum baking, coarse and fine gold deposition stations with automatic frequency plating controls, and a gold thermocompression sealing station. The length of the combined vacuum envelope is 24 ft.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., St. Petersburg, FL (USA). Neutron Devices Dept.
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00656
• OSTI ID: 5486109
• Report Number(s): GEPP-FR-434
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420800* -- Engineering-- Electronic Circuits & Devices-- (-1989)
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTALS
DEPOSITION
DESIGN
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
FABRICATION
GOLD
METALS
OPERATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLATING
QUARTZ
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SURFACE COATING
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
VACUUM SYSTEMS