With More Than 50 Years of Combined Experience in Thin Film and Microcircuit Fabrication
With more than 50 years of combined experience in Thin Film and Microcircuit fabrication, the Thin Film facility at Sarnoff Corporation can provide you with fabricated circuits that meet your requirements.
Our Facility
The Thin Film facility is a 2000 square foot (Class 100-1000) cleanroom equipped with the latest metal deposition, ion beam milling (dry etching), photolithography, electroplating, ceramic dicing, and computerized test equipment. Sarnoff Corporation is committed to advancing the state of the art in fabrication of Thin Film Circuits as well as developing new technologies to improve performance and reliability.
Flexible Entry Point
Sarnoff offers customers the advantages of "flexible entry point" for thin film products. We can work from customer-supplied designs, artwork and/or substrates. This allows you to choose only the services you need. In addition to the services offered, we also have modeling and design capabilities to supply a complete product as needed.
The Thin Film facility at Sarnoff Corporation has many Standard Metallization Schemes available.
At Sarnoff Corporation, we can do up to four different metals in any combination in one pump down.
- Resistors: Cermet, NiChrome, TaN
- Adhesion: Titanium, Ti/Tungsten, Chromium
- Barrier: Platinum, Nickel, Palladium
- Conductor: Gold, Silver, Copper, Aluminum
The Sarnoff Thin Film facility has many other metallizations available. Please contact us at if you have any questions. We should be able to accommodate any of your metallization needs.
Defined Gold/Tin (AuSn) eutectic deposition is now available to selected areas of the circuit, eliminating the need to use AuSn preforms. This process will increase yields and reliability while keeping inventory cost down.
Browse our pages to learn more about Etching, Ceramics, and working with us.
Ion Beam Milling (Dry Etching) is a process where ions are driven into the part being etched at a high rate of speed. When the ions make contact, metal particles are then knocked off. Ion Beam Milling is not selective--it etches everything, but at different rates. Gold is one of the fastest metals to etch (1000A/sec).
Ion Beam Milling is the superior choice
The greatest benefit of dry etching is we can precisely duplicate the photo-resist image with no under-cut. This allows engineers to design much tighter lines and spaces for higher frequency circuits.
Ion Beam Milling (dry) provides a cleaner etching process than conventional chemical (wet) etching. Some materials such as Quartz and Platinum cannot be chemically etched without affecting other metal layers. Chemical etching can also introduce cross contamination, which degrades overall circuit performance. Dry etching offers increased yields and reliability, keeping rework down.
Etch rates for various materials
Material / Element
/ Etch Rate (A°/Min)
Gold / Au
/ 1000
Aluminum / Al
/ 400
Chromium / Cr
/ 464
Copper / Cu
/ 750
Tantalum Nitride / TaN
/ 280
Nickel / Ni
/ 440
Palladium / Pd
/ 850
Platinum / Pt
/ 550
Silicon / Si
/ 225
Titanium Tungsten / Ti/W
/ 250
Titanium / Ti
/ 225
Silver / Ag
/ 1400
Browse our pages to learn more about Metallization, Ceramics, and working with us.
Stock Inventory:
The Thin Film facility is able to provide quick turnarounds by keeping a large supply in house at any given time.
The Fab stocks ceramics in sizes from 1 x 1 inch (2.54 x 2.54 cm) to 4.5 x 4.5 inches (11.43 x 11.43 cm), at thicknesses from .005 inch (.127 mm) to .050 inch (1.27 mm).
Ceramic / Finish
/ Er @1MHz / Watts/m°K
Polished Al2O3
99.6% / < 1µ" (25nm)
Both Sides
/ 9.9 / 27
As-Fired Al2O3
99.6% / <3µ" (75nm)
Both Sides
/ 9.9 / 27
As-Fired Al2O3
96% / ~3µ" (75nm)
Both Sides
/ 9.5 / 20
Polished AlN / < 2µ" (50nm)
Both Sides
/ 8.6 / 170
BeO 99.5% / ~3µ" (75nm)
Both Sides
/ 6.5 / 270
Quartz / 60/40
optical
/ 3.82 / n/a
Titanates
(Special Order) / ~3µ" (75nm)
Both Sides
/ Call for Verification / Varies
Sapphire
(Special Order) / 80/50
optical
/ 11.5/9.3
orientation / n/a
Browse our pages to learn more about Metallization, Etching, and working with us. /
We will be happy to provide you with more information or a quotation.
If you have a data file that you would like to submit for Circuit Fabrication or for a quotation, please send it to us at .
Required Artwork
You can send us your design data in any format you choose. We can convert your data for compatibility of process for Circuit Fabrication. Common formats include: AutoCad DWG and DXF, IGES, GDSII, CALMA, GERBER, EMASK (Pattern Generation), ME-10 and Academy MSK files.
Please compress your data file (.zip) and attach it to your email. Please include your name, company name, telephone number, and all of the information necessary to process your order. You will receive a confirmation email upon receipt of your file.
If you would like to request more information, email us or use our online Contact form.
Directions to the Sarnoff Thin Film Fab are available.
Browse our pages to learn more about Metallization, Etching, and Ceramics. /