Technology

Optotrack, Inc. provides innovative design and engineering solutions to hot embossing and precision replication, vacuum deposition, microfabrication, and nanotechnology. We are available to discuss your application and process requirements.

Hot Embossing and Precision Replication

Hot embossing is a technique to imprint high-precision and high-quality microstructures and nanostructures on large surfaces using a master mold. It is a cost-effective and time-efficient process with the flexibility of material selection and volume production. Most importantly, it is compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques. It has been used to fabricate micro-optical components, MEMS sensors, and microfluidic devices. Optotrack, Inc. has an automated hot embossing system that is designed for embossing and nanoimprinting applications for substrates up to 5 inches. By combining thermo-plastic molding with common pattern transfer techniques, we can transfer a surface-relief profile with identical patterns from a mold into formable materials such as polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, PMMA, and PTFE to fabricate microfluidic chips and microsensors. The worldwide market for microfluidics is projected to reach $1.8 billion by 2008.

Vacuum Deposition

Vacuum deposition is a process to deposit atoms or molecules one at a time in a low-pressure or vacuum environment. It increases the mean free path for collisions of atoms and high-energy ions, improves the quality of the deposited films, and helps reduce gaseous contamination to an acceptable level. It can deposit multilayer thin films of a large variety of materials ranging from the fabrication of microelectronic devices to the deposition of protective coatings. At Optotrack, Inc., we have the following capabilities to deposit oxides, nitrides, ferroelectrics, ferromagnetics, giant magnetoresistive structures, and polymer films onto silicon, single crystal, and plastic substrates. The worldwide market for thin-film raw materials is projected to reach $13 billion by 2008.

• Sputtering Deposition
• Thermal Evaporation
• Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD)
• Pulsed-Laser Deposition
• Spin Coating

Microfabrication

Microfabrication is a technology to fabricate compact devices by silicon processing techniques such as photolithography, deposition, dry and wet etch, wafer bonding, and electroplating to create membrane structures, tiny movable parts, or small sealed chambers that can reduce thermal mass, redirect light path, sample a small amount of fluid, or transmit a pre-selected wavelength of interest. Because these miniaturized parts are built using integrated circuit (IC) batch-processing techniques, they can be fabricated cost-effectively in parallel and manufactured into arrayed structures with high precision and in large quantity, which provides significant economy scales and scopes. In recent years, microfabricated components and systems, often referred as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), have been incorporated into a variety of emerging products introduced to market. They are widely deployed for pressure sensor, accelerometer, oscillator, ink-jet printing head, information display, and microfluidic chip applications. Many newly developed active and passive components for optical, mobile, and wireless communications including switches, filters, variable attenuators, and tunable lasers are also based on MEMS technology. The global market demand of automotive MEMS sensors is projected to reach $2.2 billion by 2011.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology, by its nature, is fundamentally changing the way materials and devices are produced. It is a small world with big potential. When objects are built with precisely controlled compositions and structures at the atomic or molecular scale (by definition, less than 100 nanometers), they exhibit novel and significantly improved biological, chemical, electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and optical properties for a variety of applications. In other words, nanotechnology crosses scientific disciplines and utilizes scaling laws to pursue novel effects, improved performance, and perhaps reduced production cost in the long run. For the upcoming decades, it will find tremendous growth opportunities in energy, catalytic, structural, biomedical, pharmaceutical, electronic, optoelectronic, and magnetic market segments. The worldwide market for nanotechnology is predicted to reach $27.0 billion in 2013.