Your Subtitle text
technology
Colnatec designs unique thin film products to serve specific environmental and manufacturing needs which are otherwise largely ignored by the general R&D community. This does not mean these needs are not warranted or important, but rather they are not as "sexy" to larger organizations, for a variety of reasons.
Our technology team, under the direction of Scott Grimshaw, himself a holder of numerous patents, digs deep to find critical needs for which they can design a groundbreaking solution.
Solution Guide: OPTICS
Solution Guide: OLED
Solution Guide: CIGS
Solution Guide: ALD
Our technology team, under the direction of Scott Grimshaw, himself a holder of numerous patents, digs deep to find critical needs for which they can design a groundbreaking solution.
Solution Guide: OPTICS
Solution Guide: OLED
Solution Guide: CIGS
Solution Guide: ALD
Our Sensors
Quartz crystal thin film sensors are routinely employed in the manufacture of thin film electronic devices such as OLED’s, LCD’s and Integrated Circuits. While known for their ability to detect films as thin as one Angstrom and, when properly optimized, reliable enough to insure process repeatability, crystal derived thickness readings are often taken as indisputable measurements by process engineers. Unfortunately, this blind faith can have major negative consequences in the manufacture of sophisticated thin film products.
In a typical deposition run, the user programs the crystal controller with the density of the film being monitored, the acoustic impedance value (applicable only to thick films) and the tooling factor, a geometrical correlation of the deposition source to crystal and source to substrate distances. The primary assumption made is that the film density is known, and that it is not dependent on deposition conditions. For a given process configuration, the film density can be calculated exactly by comparing the crystal thickness with a secondary measurement obtained from profilometry, for example. If not, a significant error can be introduced to the film thickness calculation.
The greatest source of error to film thickness measurement arises, however, from factors not accounted for in a typical deposition. Although the quartz crystal resonance frequency has been shown to be sensitive to mass deposition, it also is sensitive to temperature, stress in the growing film, and adhesion of the film to quartz, among other factors. The temperature dependence is so great that quartz has been used as a thermometer.
Unless process engineers and product designers account for the quartz crystal temperature effects and other unique variables, however, they will be unable to guarantee that run to run reproducibility will be possible for their thin film product. Worse, successful products developed under strict protocols in a research laboratory may not be reproducible in pilot or large scale manufacturing runs.
For these reasons and others identified specifically by line engineers, we have designed and now produce unique crystals that overcome these limitations, and we are building the next generation of sensor heads that will further enable improved accuracy and longer run-times, ultimately delivering our customers an improved bottom line.
Patents protected:
US Patent 7,176,474
US Patent 7,275,436
US Patent 7,122,944
For a price quote, please contact sales@colnatec.com
Quartz crystal thin film sensors are routinely employed in the manufacture of thin film electronic devices such as OLED’s, LCD’s and Integrated Circuits. While known for their ability to detect films as thin as one Angstrom and, when properly optimized, reliable enough to insure process repeatability, crystal derived thickness readings are often taken as indisputable measurements by process engineers. Unfortunately, this blind faith can have major negative consequences in the manufacture of sophisticated thin film products.
In a typical deposition run, the user programs the crystal controller with the density of the film being monitored, the acoustic impedance value (applicable only to thick films) and the tooling factor, a geometrical correlation of the deposition source to crystal and source to substrate distances. The primary assumption made is that the film density is known, and that it is not dependent on deposition conditions. For a given process configuration, the film density can be calculated exactly by comparing the crystal thickness with a secondary measurement obtained from profilometry, for example. If not, a significant error can be introduced to the film thickness calculation.
The greatest source of error to film thickness measurement arises, however, from factors not accounted for in a typical deposition. Although the quartz crystal resonance frequency has been shown to be sensitive to mass deposition, it also is sensitive to temperature, stress in the growing film, and adhesion of the film to quartz, among other factors. The temperature dependence is so great that quartz has been used as a thermometer.
Unless process engineers and product designers account for the quartz crystal temperature effects and other unique variables, however, they will be unable to guarantee that run to run reproducibility will be possible for their thin film product. Worse, successful products developed under strict protocols in a research laboratory may not be reproducible in pilot or large scale manufacturing runs.
For these reasons and others identified specifically by line engineers, we have designed and now produce unique crystals that overcome these limitations, and we are building the next generation of sensor heads that will further enable improved accuracy and longer run-times, ultimately delivering our customers an improved bottom line.
Patents protected:
US Patent 7,176,474
US Patent 7,275,436
US Patent 7,122,944
For a price quote, please contact sales@colnatec.com
Our Crystals
Colnatec manufactures replacement quartz crystals for most commercially available film thickness monitors. These include 6 MHz, 14mm diameter crystals (for Inficon, Sycon, Sigma Instruments and Maxtek instruments), 5 MHz, 14mm diameter crystals (for Balzers instruments) and 5 MHz, 12.5 mm diameter crystals (for Ulvac and Sloan instruments). We offer the standard electrode coatings as well: gold/chromium, silver/chromium and aluminum (or "alloy").
Additionally, we exclusively sell RC™ quartz crystals, a cutting edge microbalance design (US patent No. 6,820,485 B2, UK Patent GB2416209B) that solves an age old problem: radiant heat causes a quartz crystal to fluctuate in rate during a deposition. This fluctuation can cause rate or thickness errors of up to 100% and results in the inability to monitor precision layer depositions. Scott Grimshaw invented a novel doubly rotated cut quartz crystal that, unlike standard AT-cut crystals, does not change frequency when exposed to thermal radiation from deposition or heating sources. This enables the user to reliably measure ultra thin film depositions (< 100 Angstroms) that are a critical part of organic LED and precision optical coating (e.g. needle synthesis design) manufacture. Best of all, RC™ crystals fit standard 5 and 6 MHz instruments and are priced at $10 or less.
To ensure your satisfaction, we offer a 100% money back, no questions asked guarantee.
We package all our quartz crystals in a clean room compatible container which holds 10 crystals. Careful attention to the design ensures that the center of the crystal, where the actual measurement occurs (within a radius of 3 mm from the center), is not touched or contaminated by the plastic.
We use pharmaceutical grade PETG plastic for the top, and hand cleaned polystyrene for the base. This difference in plastics is needed due to the buildup of static charge between two pieces of PETG. Some manufacturers use anti-static PETG, but this contains a polymer agent that will eventually leach onto the crystal surface.
We normally package 5 discs in a second, PVC container. This avoids the use of paperboard containers that some companies use. Why go through all the trouble of keeping the crystal clean only to introduce particulates at the final packaging step?
It's this attention to detail that makes our crystals the best in the world.
To order, please email us at sales@colnatec.com.
Colnatec manufactures replacement quartz crystals for most commercially available film thickness monitors. These include 6 MHz, 14mm diameter crystals (for Inficon, Sycon, Sigma Instruments and Maxtek instruments), 5 MHz, 14mm diameter crystals (for Balzers instruments) and 5 MHz, 12.5 mm diameter crystals (for Ulvac and Sloan instruments). We offer the standard electrode coatings as well: gold/chromium, silver/chromium and aluminum (or "alloy").
Additionally, we exclusively sell RC™ quartz crystals, a cutting edge microbalance design (US patent No. 6,820,485 B2, UK Patent GB2416209B) that solves an age old problem: radiant heat causes a quartz crystal to fluctuate in rate during a deposition. This fluctuation can cause rate or thickness errors of up to 100% and results in the inability to monitor precision layer depositions. Scott Grimshaw invented a novel doubly rotated cut quartz crystal that, unlike standard AT-cut crystals, does not change frequency when exposed to thermal radiation from deposition or heating sources. This enables the user to reliably measure ultra thin film depositions (< 100 Angstroms) that are a critical part of organic LED and precision optical coating (e.g. needle synthesis design) manufacture. Best of all, RC™ crystals fit standard 5 and 6 MHz instruments and are priced at $10 or less.
To ensure your satisfaction, we offer a 100% money back, no questions asked guarantee.
We package all our quartz crystals in a clean room compatible container which holds 10 crystals. Careful attention to the design ensures that the center of the crystal, where the actual measurement occurs (within a radius of 3 mm from the center), is not touched or contaminated by the plastic.
We use pharmaceutical grade PETG plastic for the top, and hand cleaned polystyrene for the base. This difference in plastics is needed due to the buildup of static charge between two pieces of PETG. Some manufacturers use anti-static PETG, but this contains a polymer agent that will eventually leach onto the crystal surface.
We normally package 5 discs in a second, PVC container. This avoids the use of paperboard containers that some companies use. Why go through all the trouble of keeping the crystal clean only to introduce particulates at the final packaging step?
It's this attention to detail that makes our crystals the best in the world.
To order, please email us at sales@colnatec.com.