US 4,300,272 AGranted

High vacuum continuous cycle fabrication facility

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army

InventorsErich Hafner, Robert J. Ney

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Abstract

Disclosed is a semi-automatic processing system for the production of components requiring the deposition of metallization and assembly in an oil free ultra-high vacuum environment. The system is comprised of a plurality of interconnected tubular high vacuum chambers for separately performing ultra-violet cleaning, bake out, plating and sealing of, for example, quartz crystal resonator units, in an in-line configuration adapted for continuous cycle processing of components. The major elements of the system include: (a) a belt type transport which is adapted to convey one or more components through the respective chamber and into an adjoining chamber through an intermediate gate valve; (b) manipulators for handling the component parts inside the vacuum chambers; (c) long life highly directional evaporation sources for evaporated metal deposition on selected component parts; and (d) a sealing apparatus for hermetically sealing the components after evaporation without exposure to atmosphere. Each chamber accordingly is separated from all adjoining chambers by gate valves which make each chamber a self contained modular unit that, for ease of servicing, can be removed and/or inserted into the system without affecting the vacuum integrity of the other chambers.

Claims15

Dependent claims

In a high vacuum fabrication facility including a plurality of intercoupled in-line replaceable modular processing chambers for cleaning, baking, plating and sealing components into packaged units, said chambers including means for being individually evacuated irrespective of the vacuum state of any other of said chambers and including transport means within each chamber for conveying a tray containing at least one set of components, said tray being conveyed along a common center line through said facility, the improvement comprising in combination:

input means;
a first high vacuum chamber coupled to said input means and including means for separately cleaning the individual surfaces of said components with ultra-violet light;
a second high vacuum chamber coupled to said first chamber and including means for separately heating said components to a predetermined elevated temperature;
a third high vacuum chamber coupled to said second chamber and including means for depositing a first layer of metallization on one component of said at least one set of components;
a fourth high vacuum chamber coupled to said third chamber and including means for depositing the second layer of metallization on said one component;
fifth high vacuum chamber coupled to said fourth chamber and including an offset interior generally cylindrical heating chamber adapted to substantially envelop said tray and having longitudinally extending heater means adapted to contact said tray for heating said set of components and additionally sealing ram means coupled to one end of said heating chamber and sealing said set of components together in a composite unit;
a sixth high vacuum chamber coupled to said fifth chamber and including means for acting as an exit chamber;
and
exit means coupled to said sixth chamber.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.