Technology News from Valley Design

21 FEBRUARY 2013 – Micromachining and precision processing of optics and semiconductors by Valley Design. Valley processes many materials from Ceramics including Aluminum Nitride, 96% - 99.8% Alumina, Macor, Glass of all types, Fused Silica and Quartz, Silicon and Sapphire, Metals and many others to micron level tolerances.  We can machine intricately formed parts from these materials including extremely small shapes, rounds, squares, rectangles, and with features such as thru-holes and pockets, corner chamfers and radii, edge chamfers and steps, complex geometries with tight tolerances.  Parts may then be lapped, polished and diced all within Valley’s facilities.  Working closely with local coating houses, we can also provide various types of AR and optical coatings.  Valley also machines, laps and polishes customer supplied materials. 19 JULY 2012 – Valley Design now offers expanded capabilities in CNC machining, light absorbing coatings and 450mm diameter wafer processing.  Please click here for our latest news release on these new offerings. 12 JANUARY 2012 - We are pleased to announce that we have recently implemented a major expansion of our precision dicing department. We now have 8 DISCO CNC dicing saws and 3 K&S dicing saws. All are fully programmable with a repeatable accuracy level of 2 microns, and are equipped with 200x microscopes for precise line up to streets and fudicials. Our dicing saws can accommodate up to 6" diameter as a standard size. Certain 200mm diameter materials can also be accommodated. Larger wafers up to 300mm diameters can be quartered and then diced. Thick and thin parts can be diced, from as thin as 20 microns to as thick as .250" using a wide variety of blade types and blade widths and thicknesses. Blade kerfs can be as low as 20 microns wide. Thicker parts can be diced with other precision machines at Valley Design. We can dice as small as 0.203mm square. Valley dices both our own materials from our extensive stock, as well as customer supplied materials, including coated and patterned wafers and bonded wafer sandwiches. Semiconductor, microelectronic and optical components of all types can be custom diced in a wide variety of materials from Ceramics, Fused Silica, Glass, Sapphire, Silicon, Aluminum Nitride, 99.6% and 96% Alumina, Ferrites and others. Even metals can be diced such as stainless steel and many other alloys. Many of these parts require precise parallelism and perpendicularity which Valley can supply. We also offer CNC hole drilling capability, angled edges and cutouts. Valley Design also refurbishes porous and metal vacuum chucks for DISCO and K & S machines as well as other semiconductor chucks. Click here for more information. 11 JULY 2008 -Valley Design is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has approved the patent for the Indars Interferometer, "Interferometer for the Measurement of Large Diameter Thin Wafers." To address the challenge of obtaining accurate flatness measurements on thin, large diameter wafers the Indars Interferometer was invented.This non-contact optical interferometer measures the flatness of thin,transparent windows, wafers and substrates by interferometric comparison to an optical reference flat without the need for application of opaque films which distort flatness readings. 9 JUNE 2008 -The top names in the semiconductor industry including Intel, Samsung and TSMC have joined forces to target the transition to 450mm diameter wafers starting in 2012.This transition to larger diameter wafers will enable the semiconductor industry's continued growth while maintaining a reasonable cost structure. The total surface area of a 450mm diameter wafer can yield more than twice the amount of die as a 300mm diameter wafer. Bigger wafers help lower the production cost per chip, and also lowers the amount of overall resources required per chip through more efficient use of energy and water. Currently, Valley Design can supply large diameter dummy wafers including 450mm diameter wafers in materials such as Borofloat and Soda Lime glass, 1.1mm thick with 60/40 scratch/dig surfaces,TTV < 15um with smooth, beveled edges. Ceramic wafers are also available 450mm diameter. 28 MAY 2008 -After in-depth surveillance audits at both East and West coast facilities last week, Valley Design is pleased to announce that its quality system continues to be acceptable, and was recommended for continued registration under AS9100D / ISO 9001:2015 requirements. All key areas of the business were reviewed, and no non-conformities were found. As a critical part of Valley's commitment to its Quality Policy, all areas of the company are focused on customer satisfaction.We are interested in your feedback!. 6 MAY 2008 -Many applications using metal chucks, stages, wafers or other types of parts require good flatnesses. However, pre-processing parameters such as whether the part was fabricated from a sheet or cut from a block, whether it was lasered or cut by EDM can induce stress in the material, thereby affecting the flatness of the finished part. Valley Design can flatten stressed metal parts by a combination of cryogenic stabilizing, temperature cycling, annealing, grinding, lapping and polishing. Even stubborn parts fabricated from metal sheets can be made flat. For more information go to https://valleydesign.com/flat-lapping/. 1 MAY 2008 -Single crystal wafers are available from Valley Design for UV and other applications. Wafers are available in all sizes and thicknesses as thin as 50 microns (.002").Super polished surface finishes of < 7 Angstroms are also available.Many single crystal wafers and substrates are available from stock. 23 APR 2008 -Valley Design will be exhibiting with HEBO SpezialGlas at the upcoming Optatec Trade Fair in Frankfurt, Germany June 17-20, 2008. HEBO is Valley's exclusive representative for Germany. Valley has also recently partnered with Optics Concept to represent its products and services exclusively in France. VDC technical sales and management team will be available along with our respective sales representatives from Hebo and Optics Concept to meet with customers and prospects from France and Germany. We will also be interested to meet with interested partners from the Netherlands, UK, Scandinavia, Israel and other countries. 9 APR 2008 -Valley Design announces its new partnership with Optics Concept in France. Optics Concept is now the exclusive representative of Valley Design products and services in France. French customers who wish to contact Optics Concept directly,please click here.This is in addition to the cooperative agreement entered into this past summer with HEBO SpezialGlas who represent Valley Design products and services in Germany.Valley Design is also the exclusive representative of HEBO products in the USA which include laser protection filters and color filter glasses. 2 APR 2008 -NEW PRODUCT: Optical filter glass for laser protection windows and shields. Valley Design now offers a full range of laser protection filter glass in a full range of sizes from 50mm square up to 200mm square and thicknesses from 1, 2, 3mm up to 10mm thick. Polished filters 50mm square of all types in sample quantities are available from stock. 25 MAR 2008 -Valley Design offers wafers, substrates and discs for use in microfluidics applications to be processed by wet etching, powder blasting, lasering and thermal bonding. All types of glass and optical quality fused silica can be fabricated into these microfluidic wafers and substrates. They are available up to 300mm diameter in all thicknesses from ultra-thin 25um to 1mm,1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm and thicker. Custom sizes and thicknesses are also available.Many parts available from stock. 25 FEB 2008 -Please join us for the upcoming Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon 2008) on analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy being held in New Orleans, Louisiana,March 3 - March 6. We will be exhibiting in Booth # 6941. Stop by and see our new Color Glass Filters, Polished Polyimide Wafers, polished Molybdenum and Aluminum Optics and backside thinning and optical polishing of Sapphire wafers. Pittcon, the world's largest, most comprehensive conference and exposition for laboratory science, covers a broad spectrum of areas such as bioanalytical chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, nanotechnology, environmental, forensic and food analysis, homeland security and many others. For more details and registration click on this link: Pittcon 2008. 15 JAN 2008 -Visit us at the upcoming Photonics West conference and exhibition being held next week January 22-24 at the San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California.We will be exhibiting in Booth # 1441.Valley Design technical sales and executive management team will be available to meet with you, and look forward to discussing your requirements. New products include color glass filters and polished polyimide wafers. Click the link here for more details and registration for Photonics West. See you there!