Hermetic Waveguide & Sight Windows

PacAero manufactures hermetic windows for optical, laser and infrared applications. Our windows 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. 

PacAero windows are also designed for laser welding to a range of metals, including aluminum, titanium and iron/nickel alloys, for additional flexibility. PacAero 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

PacAero 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 PacAero’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.

PacAero’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 1×10-9 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. PacAero’s ceramic-sealed window materials have also passed cytotoxicity testing, so they’re proven safe for use within the human body.

Unlike solder- or braze-sealed windows, PacAero’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

Download Datasheet

TypeWindow MaterialFrame MaterialSealing Material
OpticalBK10Iron/Nickel AlloySolder*
Corning 7056Iron/Nickel AlloyDirect Seal
SapphireIron/Nickel AlloyKryoflex
SapphireTitaniumActive BrazeTM
LaserSapphireTitaniumActive BrazeTM
SapphireTitaniumKryoflex
Fused SilicaIron/Nickel AlloySolder*
Infrared (IR)SapphireTitaniumActive BrazeTM
Waveguide (RF)Corning 7070Iron/Nickel AlloyDirect Seal