WINDOWS FOR HERMETIC SEALS

SOURIAU PA&E manufactures hermetically sealed windows for optical, laser and infrared applications producing windows that maintain the highest levels of hermetic integrity under the extreme environmental conditions space or defense-related LADAR, laser designation/acquisition systems and medical endoscopic tools must operate in.

Our hermetic windows offer engineers additional advantages beyond high hermetic performance, giving them the choice of a variety of optical glasses such as sapphire, quartz and BK10. These new windows are also designed for laser welding to a range of metals, including aluminum, titanium and iron/nickel alloys, for additional flexibility.

SOURIAU PA&E offers a number of window sealing options including: proprietary active braze sealing; a patented direct sealing process; standard braze sealing, solder sealing and a newly developed ceramic sealing process.

Ceramic Sealing Technology

SOURIAU PA&E has pioneered the use of ceramic-to-metal sealing technology to manufacture hermetically sealed windows for optical, laser and infrared applications. The unique bonding properties and polycrystalline structure of  SOURIAU PA&E’s Kryoflex material now allow the company to produce sight or wave-guide windows that maintain the highest levels of hermetic packaging integrity under the extreme environmental conditions. This new product is particularly well suited for space or defense-related LADAR, laser designation/acquisition systems and medical endoscopes.

SOURIAU PA&E’s ceramic-sealed hermetic windows offer engineers additional advantages beyond high hermetic performance.  Because Kryoflex seals at relatively low temperatures, they can now choose from a variety of optical glasses such as sapphire, quartz and BK10. Windows produced with this new process are extremely robust and reliable because a key point of failure – solder joint fatigue – is eliminated.

They provide a leak rate equal to or less than 1X10^-9 cc/sec helium at 1 atmospheric differential pressure, even when subjected to extreme thermal and mechanical shock and, in medical applications, will maintain integrity after repeated (1,000+) autoclave sterilization cycles. SOURIAU PA&E's ceramic-sealed window materials have also passed cytotoxity testing, so they're proven safe for use within the human body.

Unlike solder- or braze-sealed windows, SOURIAU PA&E’s ceramic-sealed hermetic windows do not require metallization. Eliminating this step can, reduce costs and processing time and allows anti-reflective coatings to be applied after the sealing process, ensuring that the critical A/R coating is not impacted by subsequent processing. 

Hermetic Windows Configurations

• Optical Windows
• Laser Windows
• Infrared (IR) Windows
• RF/Waveguide Windows