Tag Archive: photonics

1. Glass Wafers: How Optics, Computers and Photonics Get the Right Glass

   October 28, 2015 9:00 am Leave a Comment

   Computers, optical and other technological manufacturing industries require glass wafers as a carrier substrate for safe fabricating of delicate products like thin silicon wafers.

   Glass wafers are also essential to the semiconductor, electronics, and biotech industries in a variety of applications.

   Making Glass Wafers

   Glass wafers are highly technical products that demand a highly technical production process, often requiring their own proprietary technologies. Here’s how Swift Glass utilizes its expert team and technology to craft these complex products:

   1. 1. Material Selection

   Glass wafers begin with the highest quality glass. We typically work with Borofloat, Borosilicate, Quartz, and Eagle XG, selecting the most consistent glass sheet from the best batches. Wafers are cut from these sheets to be further processed.

   2. 2. Shaping

   The carefully selected and cut material is then ground to build out the wafer’s general shape.

   3. 3. Edges and Details

   The edge profile of the wafer is machined to specifications with the use of diamond tools. For example, a wafer could be crafted with a flat or notch, depending upon the design, and with an edge profile that is either flat-ground or pencil-ground. The notch, if designed, serves as a precise locator.

   4. 4. Lapping

   The product is lapped, and the profile accuracy gets checked.

   6. 5. Polishing

   Both sides of the wafer are polished.

   7. 6. Inspection

   Glass wafer inspection must be highly controlled in order to guaranteeprecision — the product is taken to a clean room with climate control, and the profile is recorded by laser.

   The laser passes over the glass three times while another gauge reads the wafer’s total thickness variation (TTV). The larger the wafer, the more critical the TTV.

   Glass Wafers from Swift Glass

   After more than eighty years of glass manufacturing, the Swift Glass Team has developed highly specialized design and production capabilities. We are proud to take on the complex challenges that come with specialty products like glass wafers.

   For more information about our processes, check out our library full of free resources.

2. Photonics, Optics and the Tech of the Future

   August 27, 2015 9:03 am Leave a Comment

   Swift Glass among the Region’s Optical and Photonics Specialists

   Vice President Joe Biden recently visited Rochester, the “optics capital of the world,” to announce that our region has been chosen to host a new $600-million Integrated Photonics Center.

   The creation of a national photonics institute means more than jobs and industrial growth; it’s the beginning of the next generation of American manufacturing.

   Photonics research contributes to the function of countless daily tools: smartphones, high-speed Internet and wireless controllers, to start. It is closely related to optics: technology harnesses light for the development of smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices.

   Photonics touches a broad spectrum of industries: for example, manufacturing, global information technology, telecommunications, medicine, energy and national defense.

   The idea is to transition devices from electron-based operations to using photons, or light. This includes the transfer of data from the internet, phones, TV, and radio with tools like lasers, fiber optics and optical detectors.

   As a longstanding member of the optical community — and as a close neighbor to Rochester — Swift Glass is proud to have the specialized skills to bring new designs like these to life with working products and system components. Our glass materials alone carry unique traits applicable in modern technology, but our custom fabrication capabilities are where real innovation happens.

   The skilled technical team at Swift specializes in every step of development, from prototyping to large-scale part production. Our state-of-the-art machining solutions and capabilities include:

   • Bending and Convexing
   • Chemical Strengthening
   • Beveling
   • Counterboring
   • Cutting and Drilling
   • Double Sided Lapping & Polishing
   • Flat Polish and Pencil Polish Edging
   • Milling
   • Pattern Cutting
   • Sagging
   • Seaming
   • Silk Screening
   • Surface Frosting
   • Tempering

   We’re proud to have spent eighty years here in the Rochester area, sharing in the research, technology and thriving energy of the optical industry. As the oldest supplier of tempered glass in the United States, it’s inspiring to see these types of developments in the industry

   Lighting, appliances and optics are part of the Swift Glass DNA, and we can’t wait to see what technology is to come. If you’re working on a custom project or prototype of your own, reach out to the team today — they’d be happy to help.