Custom Products

This is the natural extension of the development phase, because after a few successful prototypes have been built the client needs more devices for clinical and / or marketing evaluations and regulatory approvals. We make these first few hundred to few thousand devices -- in full compliance with the FDA's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

Custom transducers and small quantity production

Customized processing on PZT and other composites

Capabilities

Ceramic Machining and Thin Lapping
A variety of machine tools, including diamond saws, coring drills, precision grinders and an optical lathe, allow ready fabrication of ceramics into wafers, disks and toroids. We have also produced cylindrically and spherically radiused shapes as small as 0.030" with a thickness of less than 0.003". Our lapping department is capable of delivering parts with a thickness tolerance of +/- 0.0001" in dimensions as thin as 0.001". Additionally, our conventional lathes and milling machines allow production of prototypes in metal or plastic.

Microscopic Assembly
Our technicians have the experience and the precision to fabricate transducer assemblies as small as 0.010" in diameter. We have a lot of experience in production of small-scale transducers, especially those intended for intravascular use.We have also built a wide variety of larger devices utilizing both PVDF and ceramic elements, including source transducers, measurement devices of various types and HIFU transducers.

Parylene Coating
Parylene is a conformal polymer coating offering superior sealing performance against environmental factors combined with high dielectric strength. The deposition process takes place at room temperature and is suitable for fragile or delicate parts. We coat almost all of our transducers and hydrophones with parylene for corrosion protection and to take advantage of its beneficial qualities as an acoustic matching layer. Our chamber is 12" high and 11" in diameter, suitable for small to mid-size parts.

Thin Film Metalization
Our cryogenic vacuum system allows evaporative plating of a selected source metal on a variety of substrates. We use aluminum and chrome/gold on a regular basis for our production work, and can also deposit copper, silver, titanium or nickel. The plating process incorporates a plasma cleaning stage to augment our aqueous/ultrasonic precision cleaning procedure. Nominal deposition thickness is 2,000 Angstroms of the desired source metal.