MEMS, Photonics, Nano-Technology, Optoelectronics

Valley Design is seeking independent sales representatives throughout Europe: United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland and others. Please contact Gunars Indars for further details.

VALLEY DESIGN NEWS - Check in regularly for the latest technology updates

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 www.flatlapping.com.

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!

26 NOV 2007 – Recent improvements have been made to Valley's backside thinning process for highly stressed, patterned Sapphire wafers. Patterned sapphire wafers can be thinned to ultra-thin thicknesses, however, the final achievable thickness is dependent on wafer size, edge condition, stresses induced from the front-side pattern, and the orientation of the Sapphire. Valley has achieved as thin as 50um on patterned wafers, and as thin as 25um on unpatterned wafers.

15 OCT 2007 – Valley Design has significantly improved its ultra-thin polished sapphire capabilities. We are now routinely thinning and optically polishing R-plane sapphire in sizes from 1" square to 100mm diameter to 125um and thinner, with excellent surface finishes as fine as 10/5 scratch/dig. We have also improved our capabilities in all sapphire orientations (A-plane, C-plane, R-plane) to produce 1cm square parts as thin as 50um.

29 AUG 2007 – Expanded capabilities in wafer vacuum chuck repair services.  Vacuum chucks of all types can be repaired by Valley Design, including low contact, area chucks from steel, ceramic chucks, hardcoated aluminum chucks, Silicon Carbide chucks, and Aluminum Nitride chucks.  These can be reconditioned to a flatness of ¼ wave and parallel within microns, with no size limitations.  Valley also offers quick turnaround service for projects requiring expedited delivery.

13 AUG 2007 – Light pipes from fused silica are polished to a point where they guide light via Total Internal Reflection (TIR) without causing light scattering.  Available shapes are straight rectangular or tapered.  Light pipes from BK7 or other optical materials are also available.  Please contact us with your specific requirements.

6 AUG 2007 – Come to Valley Design for Silicon Carbide (SiC) parts both large and small.  We have recently lapped and polished CVD Silicon Carbide 16.6” diameter (422mm).  We are also currently working on a project to polish single crystal Silicon Carbide to 30um thickness, with a target to reach 15um.  All sizes and thicknesses in between can also be processed by Valley.

30 JULY 2007 – To better address the requirements of our German customers and prospects, Valley Design now has sales representation in Germany.  If your company or division is located in Germany, and you would like to be contacted directly by one of Valley’s German sales representatives, please email us, and we will be happy to provide you with the appropriate contact information.  We anticipate that this new resource will further enable effective technical collaboration between Valley and its customers in Germany.

23 JULY 2007 – NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT!  Valley Design now offers polished polyimide wafers from stock.  The low dielectric constant, excellent processing characteristics, chemical resistance, flexibility, high temperature stability and smooth polished surfaces make pure, unfilled thermoset polyimide a desirable material for numerous critical applications. Standard available sizes are diameters from 2”, 3”, 100mm and 150mm x .020” (0.5mm). Custom sizes are also available.  For more information please click here.

2 JULY 2007 – NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT!  Valley Design now offers a full line of polished colored glass filters.  These can be used for applications including: Ultraviolet, Yellow, Orange, Red, Infrared, Blue, Green, Violet, Neutral Density, Heat Absorbing, Rising Color, and Wavelength Calibrated.  These glass filters are optically polished from high quality colored optical glass.  Standard sizes are 50mm square x 1mm and 2mm thick.  Custom thicknesses and sizes are also available from .1mm to 10mm thick, and in geometries up to 200mm.

18 JUNE 2007 – Valley now offers more comprehensive Sapphire substrate and wafer capabilities.  We’ve recently improved our Sapphire polishing process, and have located additional raw material resources that are able to provide up to 200mm / 8” diameter Sapphire material.

4 JUNE 2007 – Come see Valley Design at the upcoming Laser 2007 World of Photonics, June 18 – 21.  This is the 18th International Trade Fair and Congress for Optical Technologies, Components, Systems and Applications.  Valley will be exhibiting at Booth # B1.658A in the USA Pavillon at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre in Munich, Germany.  Along with displaying its various substrate, wafer and optical products, as well as lapping and polishing capabilities, the company is actively seeking sales representation in Europe and beyond.  Please call or email if you are interested in scheduling a meeting with a member of Valley Design’s technical sales team.  For more information on LASER 2007 World of Photonics please click here.

28 MAY 2007 – Valley Design has just successfully completed its ISO 9001:2000 audit of both East and West coast facilities.  Valley has dedicated considerable resources to this effort, and is well positioned to support and continually improve its Quality Business System.  The company has successfully implemented processes, procedures and policies to ensure that Valley Design remains Customer Focused, Performance Driven and continues on its mission to remain on the cutting edge of new technology in the areas of precision lapping and polishing.

21 MAY 2007 – Valley has recently developed a new process to produce highly polished surfaces on Nickel metal.  Using Ultra-Pure 99.6% pure Nickel Alloy 200, Valley can routinely provide nickel wafers and optical components with < 35 Angstroms surface roughness.  Superpolished surface finishes are also available to < 25 Angstroms.  Valley can also provide polished, mirror surfaces on Electroless Nickel and Nickel Electroplated flat parts when surface finish and flatness are critical.  Please call or e-mail for further details.

14 MAY 2007 – Superpolished mirror surface finishes on Aluminum are now available from Valley Design.  Typical polished surface finishes range from 20-30 Angstroms Ra.  Under ideal conditions (depending on material quality, substrate size, shape and thickness) Valley has been able to produce a polish as good as 8 Angstroms on 6061 T6 Aluminum.  Please see WYKO scan here.  Flat Aluminum mirrors are available in a wide variety of geometries and thicknesses.  Please call or e-mail for a quotation to meet your requirements.

7 MAY 2007 - New in stock inventory of Aluminum Nitride substrates is now available for immediate delivery from Valley Design.  The stock consists of polished substrates, lapped substrates, and as-fired substrates in various sizes square and diameters ranging from 1” squares up to 6.5” x 5.5” geometries.  Thicknesses range from .008” - .175”.  Over 20,000 substrates are available from stock. Please call or e-mail for a quotation to meet your requirements.

30 APRIL 2007 - Valley Design specializes in all types of metal lapping, polishing and precision sizing.  Whether it is Copper, Stainless Steel, Titanium Carbide, Brass or Molybdenum, we can process all these types of materials to your specifications.  We have processed parts as small as Tungsten Carbide discs .025” diameter x .020” thick up to very large 5 foot square Aluminum stages which were thousands of pounds in weight.  Valley Design is the industry leader in processing a wide variety of materials in a wide range of sizes to very exacting specifications.

23 APRIL 2007 - Polycrystaline Silicon and GIGS2 thin film solar cells deposited on polished flexible stainless steel are expected to give superior performance for space missions.

Stainless steel solar cell substrates and wafers are now available from Valley Design.

16 APRIL 2007 - Optical and CMP polishing services for all materials up to 300mm diameter wafers are provided by Valley Design.  Custom single and double side polishing of semiconductor and optoelectronic wafers and substrates including metals, crystals, polyimides, SOI and many other materials available.  These wafers can be thinned to ultra-thin levels, depending on material and diameter, as thin as 25um, and are used in applications for MEMS and anodic bonding.

9 APRIL 2007 - Ceramic substrates of 99.6% Alumina from Valley Design are optimized for thin film chip capacitor manufacturing.  These 2” square x .005” thick superpolished substrates have a nominal surface finish of .5u” with no “point” defects such as pull outs, pits or inherent porosity.  These types of defects are responsible for thin spots in the dielectric resulting in poor capacitor performance.  Please contact us for more information.

2 APRIL 2007 - Precision metal optical mirrors from stainless steel, molybdenum, aluminum, and other metals polished to 1/4 wave flatness are available with WYKO surface finish measurements. Some items from stock.

26 MARCH 2007 - Fused quartz wafers and substrates are available from Valley Design.  Valley manufactures these wafers and substrates in many sizes up to as large as 12” square or diameter with an almost perfect surface finish of <10/5 scratch/dig or 5-10 Angstroms.  Many of these are available from stock ranging from .133” (3.4mm) square to 7.87” (200mm) diameter.  For more information on these materials, please click here.

19 MARCH 2007 - Antireflection double sided AR coated float glass is available from stock in 1.9mm and 3mm thicknesses.  The transmission for this BBAR 1.9mm and 3mm thick glass is T=92% and reflectivity is R < 0.5%.  This product is available in any size from 1” square to 300mm diameter.  For more information, please click here.

12 MARCH 2007 - Custom glass substrates, wafers and windows are available from Valley Design.  Valley can provide these from D263 glass, B270 glass, AF45, Eagle 2000, 1737F, Borofloat glass, Soda Lime and others.  If required, these may be cut, machined and drilled to custom specifications.  These sheet glasses may also be re-polished if tighter specifications for flatness and surface roughness are needed.  Valley also stocks many of these glasses in standard diameters, squares and thicknesses.

3 MARCH 2007 - Small diameter core drilling services and hard material machining services are available at Valley Design.  This capability enables us to produce small diameter optical windows with no edge drop-off.  Typical sizes range from 1mm diameter to 1” diameter with minimal edge chipping.  Coatings such as Anti-Reflective (AR) and other standard coatings are also available.

26 FEB 2007 - Valley Design offers metrological flatness measurement services for wafers, substrates, vacuum chucks, and metal parts.  Size limitation for optical materials is 300mm.  Equipment utilized includes Fizeau Optical Interferometer, Indars Optical Interferometer, optical flats and other related equipment.  Valley can also improve and fix the flatness of out-of-flat wafer chucks, returning them to manufacturers’ original specifications.  For example, Valley routinely laps chucks which are out-of-flat by 2-3 waves (1 – 1.5um) incoming, and improves the flatness to ¼ wave (1/8 um).  Lapped and/or polished surface finishes are available.

20 FEB 2007 - Valley Design now offers a large inventory of thick Aluminum Nitride 175 W/Mk as-fired substrates.  These substrates can also be lapped and/or polished to custom thicknesses.  Polished surface finishes to 1-2u” Ra are available.

4.5” square x .078” (2mm) thick

4.5” square x .118” (3mm) thick

4.5” square x .157” (4mm) thick

4.5” square x .236” (6mm) thick

Please call or e-mail for a quotation to meet your requirements.

12 FEB 2007 - Metrological services are now available from Valley Design Corp, and include WYKO laser profilometer non-contact surface finish measurements. The surface heights range from 0.1nm to 500 microns with vertical resolution to 0.1nm. Various objective lenses make it easy to measure a wide range of samples. For more detail on how the WYKO works, please click here.

5 FEB 2007 - Valley Design Corp. invites you to see us at the upcoming Laser 2007 World of Photonics exhibition being held June 18-21 in Munich, Germany.  This exhibition is the most important informational platform for the advancement and initiation of photonic business in the industrial, research and scientific communities.  Valley Design will be exhibiting in the USA Pavilion, and will be demonstrating the new patent pending Indars Interferometer.  This new low cost optical flatness interferometer is specially designed to measure thin, transparent wafers and substrates, as well as vacuum chuck flatness measurements.  For more information on Laser 2007 World of Photonics, please click here.

29 JAN 2007- This past week at Photonics West was a very busy one, and Valley Design’s introduction of the new Indars Interferometer through our New Product Demonstration at the show was a success.  To view the presentation given to the attendees, please click here.

22 JAN 2007- Valley Design offers the largest inventory (over 20,000 parts) of Aluminum Nitride available in the industry.  Aluminum Nitride substrates, wafers, pucks and tiles are available as-fired, as-machined, lapped or polished.  Standard sizes range from 1” square up to 6” square and in thicknesses up to a quarter of an inch (.250”).  These are all available from stock.  Custom sizes and shapes are also available, and this material can be thinned to as thin as .002” (50um).  Please inquire.

15 JAN 2007- Valley Design has expanded its ultrasonic hole drilling capabilities with the addition of a new Impact Grinder.  This enables us to drill a wide variety of hole sizes as well machining various shapes and cavities into hard and brittle materials.  Valley can now provide square holes, blind holes, and holes of many other shapes with materials such as Quartz, Glass, Ceramics, Silicon, and Sapphire.  Come to us for even your most demanding applications and tolerances.  For more information on Valley’s ultrasonic hole drilling services, please go to http://www.valleydesign.com/Drilling.htm

8 JAN 2007- Valley Design invites you to attend the upcoming Photonics West exhibition and conference, January 23-25, 2007 being held at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California. Photonics West is North America's largest commercial exhibition on optics, lasers, biomedical optics, optoelectronic components and imaging. Combined with a comprehensive technical program, Photonics West brings together more than 1,000 exhibitors from the global optics and photonics community to showcase a wide range of products and services.

We will be exhibiting at Booth #1947 and will present the new Indars Interferometer, an optical interferometer specially designed to measure the flatness of thin, transparent wafers and substrates. Don't miss the technical presentation on the new interferometer which will be given on Wednesday, January 24th at 4:30p.m. in Hall 3 as part of the Photnics West "Exhibitor Product Spotlight Demo." Valley Design's founder, Gunars Indars and the company's technical and sales management will be there to meet you as well.

Please call or e-mail for further details.

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