Synthetic sapphire and fused quartz are both used in optical applications requiring extreme heat resistance, exposure to fluorine plasma, and transmittance in UV, visible & IR spectral regions. However, solid sapphire is difficult and costly to process, and uncoated quartz can degrade in harsher environments at a rate requiring frequent part replacement.
We now offer a hybrid solution, a sapphire-coated quartz version of the original uncoated part that can be substituted for either; this design boasts an etch rate in CF4 approaching sapphire, but with pricing closer to quartz. Less frequent part replacement increases up-time and saves money. We offer sapphire-coated quartz windows, sapphire-coated tubes, sapphire coated heater windows, sapphire-coated quartz parts with complex geometries as well.
Sapphire-On-Quartz (SOQ) can be the original design for many existing semiconductor tools; in other cases, an SOQ version is an upgraded or more cost-effective version of a simple quartz or sapphire part. Host hardware and fixtures typically require no retrofitting to accept SOQ parts.
