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Measuring quartzes
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BeamTec stocks 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), 5 MHz, 12.5mm diameter crystals (for Ulvac and Sloan instruments), and the new 8mm diameter 5 or 6 MHz crystals for Colnatecs revolutionary 24-crystal sensor head, Infinity™. For the electrode contact materials gold and silver with a chromium coating or aluminum („alloy“) are used. The quartz crystal are available in 3 quality grates / categories (Standard AT-Cut / Premium AT-Cut / RC™-Cut). The patented RC™ cut quartzes do not respond to thermal radiation as a typical AT cut crystal does, leading to the highest accuracy quartz film thickness crystal ever made!
About Colnatec LLC
COLNATEC LLC is a US american manufacturer that is specialized in quartz crystals and the measuring technology for vacuum thin film processes. The technical director of COLNATEC, Scott Grimshaw, who developed the alloy quartzes at Inficon, led the development of the quartz technology to the next generation.
Temperature insensitive RC Quartzes
The patented design of the RC ™ Quartz is insensitive to frequency shifts due to thermal radiation and film stress. This was achieved by changing the layer structure of the raw quartz using advanced manufacturing conditions.
In ultra-thin layers in the 10-100 Angstrom range, the combination of frequency shifts resulting from heat and stress in layer growth can result in a layer thickness deviation of more than 100%. This results in an uncontrollable deposition process. The newly developed RC™ Quartz almost completely attenuates these effects.
The RC™ crystal does not generate any rate fluctuations when opening and closing the evaporator shutter. This has also been proven impressively in tests in our house in comparison with a conventional AT-cut quartz.
Typically, the opening of the shutter results in a frequency shift of up to 100 Hz, which in the case of an aluminum layer corresponds to a layer thickness of approximately 50 Angstroms. In addition, the frequency noise e.g. due to the ion bombardment in sputtering processes is significantly reduced because the crystal is insensitive to this stress. These are tangible advantages in the measurement technology of nanometer layer thicknesses, as they occur for example in processes in precision optics, OLED or high-end electronic components.
RC™ crystals can be used instead of the conventional AT-Cut crystals in typical quartz measuring heads while retaining the existing measuring equipment.
| Standard AT cut | Premium AT cut | RC™ Quartz | |
| Insensitive to temperatures above 200 ° C | no | no | yes |
| Crystal cut | AT Cut +/-2’ | AT Cut +/-0,5’ | RC Cut +/-1’ |
| Electrode material | Gold, Silver or Aluminum („alloy“) | ||
| Frequency | 6 MHz / 5 MHz | ||
| Diameter | 14.0 mm / 12.5 mm / 8.6 mm | ||
| Crystal shape | Plano-convex | ||
| Contact material | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dual anchor quartzes shown |  |  |  |
| Gold | Silver | Aluminum | |
| 14 mm AT Standard, 6 Mhz | CNT-06IG | CNT-06IS | CNT-06IA |
| 14 mm RC, 6 Mhz | CNT-06RCIG | CNT-06RCIS | CNT-06RCIA |
| 14 mm AT Standard, 5 Mhz, Single anchor | CNT-05BG | CNT-05BS | CNT-05BA |
| 14 mm RC, 5 Mhz, Single anchor | CNT-05RCBG | CNT-05RCBS | CNT-05RCBA |
| 12,5 mm AT Standard, 6 Mhz | CNT-06ISG | ||
| 12,5 mm RC, 6 Mhz | CNT-06RCSG | ||
| 8,6 mm RC, 6 Mhz | CNT-86RCCG | CNT-86RCCA | |
| 12,5 mm RC, 6 Mhz | CNT-06RCSG | CNT-06RCSS | CNT-06RCSA |
| 14 mm AT Standard, 6 Mhz, optimized for QSK-sensor head | CNT-06IQG | CNT-06IQS | CNT-06IQA |
| 14 mm RC, 6 Mhz, optimized for QSK-sensor head | CNT-06RCIQG | CNT-06RCIQA | |