Design

Materials

Process

Services

Materials Process Consulting

Varient Precision brings a combination of practical experience and a unique perspective to a broad range of materials processes. Listed here are some specific areas that we specialize in, while we maintain a working knowledge of virtually any materials process involving solids, liquids, or gases. Whether it’s the implementation of a new material process, optimization of an existing system, or exploring new ideas-- Varient Precision can help.

Laser processing

Laser processing is unique in its ability to deliver concentrated energy in selected regions of a material. The highly non-equilibrium conditions achieved in the material have long been advertised as opening up many new processing opportunities. In reality, laser processing has some major limitations relating to energy efficiency, thermally-induced stresses, and an inability to scale to large areas or volumes economically. Over the past few decades laser processing has found successful application in some niche areas including cutting/welding, UV lithography, and crystallization of Si thin films. The availability of newer diode-pumped solid state lasers and reliable ultrafast pulsed systems has opened up more areas of research, but many of the same limitations remain regarding materials processing. At Varient Precision, we take a realistic view of this technology and can provide practical advice on the applicability of laser material processing to your engineering challenges. Drawing upon 15 years of processing experience using light to modify materials, Varient Precision can provide consulting services across a broad range of optical and photonic systems, including:

Pulsed excimer lasers (XeCl, KrF), high power optical components, beam homogenization, semicoherent optics design and ray tracing, projection systems, positioning.
Melting and rapid solidification of thin metal, semiconductor and oxide films using pulsed lasers
Solid state lasers (Ti-Sapphire, YAG, YLF, Ruby), pumping (diode and flash), custom liquid cooling, nonlinear frequency conversion (2- and 3-wave mixing).
High power optics (reflective, refraction), electro-optical modulation, pulse stretching compression and amplification, mode-locking, autocorrelation.
Semiconductor diode lasers and instrumentation, including adaptation for signaling and probes.

Vacuum Heat Treatment

High temperature annealing systems (above 1500C), rapid thermal annealing, radiative heating
Vacuum (to 10^-11 Torr ), inert and reactive atmospheres (Ar, N₂, O₂, H₂O)

Lithography and Micromachining

Lithography via conventional UV lamp illumination, excimer laser projection, e-beam lithography.
Laser micromachining of metals, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers.
Patterning and etching by reactive ion (RIE), ion milling, sputtering, liftoff techniques
Ion implantation, focused ion beam (FIB) milling, pulsed ion beam melting

Coatings

Extensive knowledge of HV, UHV technology, surface physics. Design and construction of numerous vacuum systems, integration of plasma and beam sources, pumps, custom in-situ mechanisms, etc.
Thin film deposition via sputtering (RF/DC), reactive sputtering, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), vapor deposition (LPCVD/PECVD)
Semiconductor UHV-MBE (Si, Ge, Si-Ge) via e-beam evaporation, effusion cell, laser ablation
Electrodeposition, plating

Oxides and Ceramics

Heat treatment via vacuum annealing, rapid thermal processing, sintering, solid-phase recrystallization
Powder processing, dip coating

Liquids

Ultra high purity water systems
Ultrasonic dispersion, rheometry, pumps
Nanoparticle metal and oxide suspensions, ultrasonic dispersion
Surfactant-particle interactions, particle kinetics, surface chemical interactions
Chemical and properties analysis via quadrupole mass-spectroscopy, photocorrelation mass spectroscopy (PCS), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray and electron diffraction, rheometry, IR pump-probe, zeta-potential, calorimetry.

Mechanical Design

More than any other technical area, successful mechanical design relies on blending of fundamental engineering practice with individual creative insight. Engineering skills such as analytical modeling, experience application of standards and other aspects of good design practice are required to produce designs that meet the desired performance goals. Yet, it is creative insight that leads to the best possible solution, combining functionality, efficiency, elegance of form, manufacturability and other qualities that make a design uniquely good. Engineering skills can be gained through training and experience, with today’s analytical and CAD tools allowing calculations, complexity and optimization far beyond what was possible by generations past. But insight, or a knack for design, remains that of the individual. Some may innately have it, while training as engineer can also help strengthen this skill, but it is often those with real experience—building the object themselves, fabricating, a childhood of trial-and-error mechanics-- that provides the best insight.

Commercial products

At Varient Precision, we draw upon several years of experience in mechanical product design for a major electronics manufacturer. With proficiency in Pro/Engineer and Autocad, we can provide practical and high quality design services in a commercial environment, including:

Sheet metal enclosure design, sliding closures, RF shielding, coating selection. Design for progressive die as well as low volume stamping, screw machine
Injection molded parts, including styled exteriors, latches, actuators, light-pipes. Interaction with tool designers to optimize designs
Layout, specification of signal cabling, circuit boards, OEM component specification
Design of air cooling schemes—passive and forced.
Project management from concept through to production, including scheduling, bill of materials, working with vendors, prototyping and proofing, cost reduction

Scientific instrumentation

Design and construction of instruments for scientific research often requires a comprehensive understanding of mechanics, heat transfer, fluids, optics and electromagnetism. As research tools, these designs are often need to perform in conditions outside of what is typically found in manufactured products. Extreme hot or cold temperatures, high voltages or currents, damaging atmospheres, miniaturization, or ultra-precise dimensions or flatness are often required. Designs can often involve exotic materials, custom coatings, or complex electromechanical integrated systems. Although these parts do not need to be designed for manufacturability, the design is challenging as often they must be crafted without any working examples to follow. Many one-of-a-kind custom instruments are time-consuming expensive to make, so that testing must take place in real time on the object after it is already installed. At Varient Precision, we possess 15 years experience in the invention, design, and custom fabrication of scientific equipment, including:

10 years experience in the design and construction of UHV/HV systems, rapid annealing setups, furnaces and atmospheric control chambers, plasma and electron sources/guns.
Integrated use of modeling tools (Mathematica, Visual C++, ANSYS, SRIM) with computer aided design (AutoCad, Symbad) to develop parts and mechanisms ranging in size from 100 nm to 1 meter.
Development of custom high speed data acquisition systems, optical fiber setups, pulse analysis in frequency and time domain (fs to ms range)
Setup and integration of micro-positioning and data acquisition systems using LabView and custom-designed applications

Prototyping and Fabrication

Metalworking / Micro-Fabrication

15 years hands-on experience in conventional machining, using CNC vertical mills, lathe, diamond saw, wire EDM, polishing tools. Standard working tolerances are within ±0.005”, capability to polish surfaces to 10 nm flatness. Extensive experience machining stainless steel, aluminum, copper, teflon, polycarbonate, molybdenum, graphite, alumina, MgO, quartz, silicon.
7 years hands-on experience micromachining and nanofabrication using lithography, vapor and wet etching, laser ablation/drilling. Typical working tolerances were ±100nm. Extensive clean-room and wet-chemical handling experience.

Precision Millwork and Restoration

Varient Precision has been active in the development and construction of precision wood, metal and masonry components with quality and materials matching that of the mechanized period 1880-1940 absent polymers (and hazardous substances from that era). This includes:

Precison millwork design and fabrication, achievable tolerances to ±0.005” for most profiles (hardwood or softwood)
Lime-based masonry research and development, re-development of plasters without gypsum, porous coatings, 3-coat plaster work, custom-milled brick profiles, non-standard bond brickwork.
Lead-free multi-panel glasswork, interior lead-free soil pipe designs and installation. Architectural slate milling, custom tile work, polymer-free wood design and construction.

Computational

Modeling and Coding

Varient Precision offers 3DNS, a 3-dimensional finite differences of laser melting and rapid solidification in thin films, includes non-equilibrium sharp-interface tracking model as well as interface attachment and nucleation kinetics. This software is a unique tool for researchers in the laser processing of thin films, and is available for download on this site. We also offer a free download of MathMSE, a Mathematica-based toolbox for thermodynamics and kinetics calculations, visualization, crystallography, thin film optics modeling and beam-solid interactions. Both programs are written in a Mathematica/C++ environment. In addition, we also have experience in a broad range of other modeling and coding areas:

Comprehensive work with C++, familiarity with Windows GUI, XHTML/CSS, JavaScript, Linux, Fortran
Modeling of thermally-induced stress and viscoelastic response in amorphous thin films [ANSYS/Mathematica]
Stochastic and statistical (analytic) modeling of liquid-solid suspensions on the nanoscale [Mathematica]
Image processing and transformations, surface topology analysis, chemical and crystallographic analysis.

Instrumentation and Analysis

Digital signal processing including FFT/Fourier analysis, noise cancellation, smoothing and peak-trigger identification, vibration analysis.
Digital array data post-processing, reciprocal space transformations and analysis, image processing, edge locating functions, population statistical analysis
Spectral analysis, peak fitting, diffraction indexing (Laue, X-ray powder and thin film, electron-beam), simulated annealing (Simplex) optimization.
Analog signal processing and amplification via lock-in, op-amp/CMOS circuitry, high-voltage vacuum tube, solid-state crystal optical pumping, optical autocorrelation.

Materials Characterization

Varient Precision can help you with virtually any materials characterization challenge. Whether you have instrumentation in-house, or would like us to analyze your materials at a remote or public facility, we can help.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM, SEM-OIM)
UV surface scattering measurements, ellipsometry, laser interferometry, X-ray diffraction, RHEED
Atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
Compositional analysis, mechanical and rheological properties measurements