Experts in Substrate Heating

Vacuum Components

At Thermic Edge, we develop and manufacture core Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) Solutions with market-leading quality and unrivaled performance.

Vacuum Components Overview

Our extensive industry experience and team of skilled physicists and engineers offer world-renowned custom product solutions in UHV heating, manipulation and systems whilst continually expanding our standard range of UHV components and accessories. Ensuring excellence throughout with all processes within or product lifecycle carried out in-house and controlled in accordance with ISO:9001 standards.

Every stage comes with the necessary power, thermocouple and water feedthroughs required so all you need to do is connect the services and it is ready to use. Heater controllers and power supplies are also available from Thermic Edge.

VISION: To continually advance our products through evolution and innovation whilst developing well-grounded relationships with our customers through care, quality and reliability.

VALUES: High quality products and unparalleled performance, with complete customer satisfaction is what we value the most at Thermic Edge

PHILOSOPHY: Our customers know more about their own process than anyone else, we therefore strive to listen to and learn from their feedback, so that we may perfectly tailor our designs to our customers specifications and develop our products to the highest standards in industry and academia, making us the partner of choice in our chosen sectors.

Vacuum Manipulators | Standard Linear Manipulators

Our Standard Linear Manipulator is fabricated from a pair of Conflat flanges, connected by edge welded bellows. Aluminium yolks offer strength and stability whilst keeping the assembly lightweight. It’s design, unlike many others, includes two guide bars which straddle the bellows assembly. This reduces the bending motion on the travelling flange yolk and alleviates the twisting stress on the lead screw when load is applied, allowing for the travelling flange to move towards the fixed flange in a controlled, precise motion as well as maintaining parallelism between the two flanges and minimal wear on the lead screw.

Shown Above: DN35/40CF with 50mm Stroke

All manual Standard Linear Manipulators are installed with a metric/imperial digital linear scale with 100 µm resolution. The design includes mounts for either digital encoders or limit switches which can be added upon request.

The use of high-quality stainless-steel linear bearings (low friction coefficients) and Igus® guides ensure the smoothest operation coupled with a longer life span.

The standard flange sizes and strokes include DN35/40CF or DN63CF with 50,100 or 250mm travel.

Upon request, our in-house design and engineering team can accommodate larger flange sizes and/or increased stroke lengths, to suit your individual requirements.

The Standard Linear Manipulator is actuated by a handwheel or digital stepper motor (option) and can work in any orientation.

In addition, the Standard Linear Manipulator is designed to allow for in-situ conversion to motorised actuation with installation taking approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Standard Linear Manipulator’s are commonly used in applications that don’t require a higher resolution of movement which include:

  • Manipulation of sample heating sources.
  • Sample loading and/or transfer
  • Manipulation of deposition/sputter sources (PVD)
  • Manipulation of quartz oscillators/piezoelectric devices.

Vacuum Manipulators | Advanced Linear Manipulators

Our Advanced Linear Manipulator is fabricated from a pair of Conflat flanges, connected by edge welded bellows. Aluminium yolks offer strength and stability whilst keeping the assembly lightweight. It’s design includes three guide bars, which make it self-supportive and therefore do not rely on the lead screw for rigidity (anti-deflection/rotation), providing an even more precise and controlled movement than our Standard Linear Manipulators, maintaining parallelism between the travelling platform (yolk) and the base/mounting flange and extending the lifespan of the lead screw and dependant components.

The large travelling platform design can accommodate a single bellows size up to ø93.0mm (internal, through bore) or multiple DN16-35/40CF bellows (3x max) for varying feedthroughs. This affords the Advanced Linear manipulator the unprecedented versatility to be coupled with sample/cradle rotation (manual/motorised/pneumatic), high power, liquid/gas and/or RF feedthroughs. The ø18-25mm guide bars are more than capable of the high loads required of all the beforementioned options combined whilst maintaining smooth and precise linear motion.

The use of high-quality stainless-steel linear bearings (low friction coefficients) and Igus® guides ensure the smoothest operation coupled with a longer life span.

Advanced Linear Manipulators can be fitted with either varying positional encoders and scales upon request. They can be configured with mounting flanges ranging from DN2022-350CF (Conflat) or ISO200-400K/F (ISO clamped/bolted) and standard strokes of either 50,100 or 250mm.

Upon request, our in-house design and engineering team can accommodate larger flange sizes and/or increased stroke lengths (up to 1000mm) as well as top flange X-alignment and tilting configurations, to suit your individual requirements.

Vacuum Feedthroughs | Rotary / Linear Feedthroughs

Our Rotary / Linear feedthroughs comprise a central shaft sealed with Viton® seals, supported with Igus® bearings and encompassed in a robust stainless-steel flanged housing.

The profile of the Viton seals ensures a secure vacuum seal for both rotary and linear movement is formed with minimal compression, making them both highly versatile and reliable. In addition, the profile traps high vacuum grease ensuring they are continually lubricated.

The use of high-quality Igus® guides and bearings make it suitable for use in high vacuum whilst ensuring the smoothest operation and longevity.

The Rotary / Linear feedthroughs design allows for complete interchangeability, for ease of maintenance and seal replacements.

As standard the Rotary / Linear feedthroughs are supplied with the feedthrough assembly (housing), central shaft, with airside shaft clamp, or capped tube.

Our expanding standard range of rotary / linear feedthroughs which are ideal for use in sample rotation stages and high vacuum currently includes:

  • Ø6.0mm solid central shaft with DN16CF flanged housing.
  • Ø6.0 or 8.0mm solid central with DN40CF flanged housing.
  • Ø19mm O.D. capped tube with DN40CF flanged housing.

All feedthroughs can be configured with the following;

  • Handles/knobs for manual manipulation
  • Pneumatic rotary actuator for rotation
  • Stepper motor for rotation
  • Pneumatic, motorised or solenoid actuators for linear manipulation

Upon request, our experienced in-house design and engineering team can accommodate larger flange and rod/or tube sizes, to suit your individual requirements.
All feedthroughs are helium leak tested to a leak rate of 1×10-9 mbar l/s prior to dispatch to ensure the highest level of quality and longevity.

Vacuum Feedthroughs | High Power Feedthroughs

Our High Power Feedthroughs are solely used for the transmission of high voltage and / or high current into a hermetic chamber. Our technique of coupling brazing and bonding of the ceramic breaks ensures the conductors remain electrically isolated and leak-free in high and ultra-high vacuum, high temperature and/or reactive environments. Our standard range of High Power Feedthroughs offer transferable voltages of up to 70 kV, and currents of up to 800 A.

Shown Above:

– DN60CF base flange
– (2x) Molybdenum conductors with nickel free brazing material.
– Water cooling

Upon request, High Power Feedthroughs with liquid cooled conductors, capable of currents up to 1000A can be provided. These are commonly used with closed looped cooling systems and non-conductive coolants.

Our standard range High Power Feedthroughs are designed to operate in temperatures of -150°C (-238°F) up to 450°C (842°F), however cryogenic or higher temperature feedthroughs can be accommodated upon request.

Standard conductor materials include copper or stainless steel for higher voltages however we offer a variety of other conductor materials such as Molybdenum, Nickel and Tellurium Copper upon request. Conductors can be plated in gold or silver and brazed with Nickel free silver copper eutectic for aggressive process chemical resistance such as sulphur.

All feedthroughs are helium leak tested to a leak rate of 1×10-9 mbar l/s prior to dispatch to ensure the highest level of quality and longevity.

Our experienced in-house design and engineering team are happy to provide guidance when configuring your High Power Feedthrough for your application. We are aware that having the correct hermetic feedthroughs for your specific process are essential to maintaining system integrity and safety.

Vacuum Chambers | Vacuum Fabrications

Upon request, our experienced in-house design and engineering team will design and configure custom chambers to suite your process and application, budgets and space constraints.

We are currently developing a standard range of both Stainless Steel and Aluminium Vacuum chambers, with details being posted to the site in the near future.

Thermic Edge’s current capabilities can accommodate a variety of chamber types, sizes and materials including

  • Cylindrical/tube, spherical and box types
  • Sizes ranging from small vacuum housings to large vacuum chambers (plate to plate construction) with a footprint of up to 200×300 cm.
  • Manufactured / fabricated in Stainless steel 304L/ 316L & 316LN.
  • Solid Machined/Monocoque chambers from Aluminium 5000/6000 billet.

At Thermic Edge, excellence is assured through in-house control of the entire process from conception, design and drawing production, to manufacture, fabrication and assembly, to testing and inspection, to aftermarket support. With all processes carried out and controlled in accordance with ISO9001 standards.

We strive to be at the forefront of innovation when it comes to vacuum chambers and equipment and are therefore embracing the Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) aluminium revolution. Aluminium chambers offer a number of superior qualities to that of stainless steel (SS) chambers when used in vacuum, some of which include:

  • Superior machineability and lightweight for ease of manufacture and manageability.
  • Low magnetic permeability makes it more suited to processes which utilise magnetism and/or charged particles.
  • Low modulus of elasticity affords aluminium with a higher vibration dampening quality for increased absorption.
  • Low neutron activation for less residual radioactivity, minimizing decay time.
  • Aluminium’s inherent passivation layer offers reduced diffusion and desorption of contaminates when compared to SS.
  • Optionally, aluminium chambers can be anodized for greater corrosion resistance and lower chemical reactivity.
  • Aluminium outgasses at rates less than 1×10-13Torr litres/sec cmmaking it more than suitable for UHV applications.
  • Higher thermal conductivity and diffusivity for quicker and more uniform system bake outs at lower required temperatures.