Microwave Substrate Facility

BAE Systems’ microwave substrate facility, located in Nashua, New Hampshire, specializes in the production of hard and soft microwave substrates and getters for internal and (limited) external customers.

The lab fabricates a wide range of thin-film coatings on hard substrates. Coatings include Au, Cr, Ni, NiCr, Pd, TaN, Ti, and TiW, and the hard substrates are mainly composed of alumina, beryllia, aluminum nitride, or quartz. An advanced Semicore sputtering system is the facility’s primary tool for applying these films, and an electron beam evaporator is used to deposit some films. The lab also fabricates soft-substrate material for use in microwave applications. Raw material of many types (Rogers Duroid, Taconic, Ultralam, and FR-4) is stocked for quick fabrication.

The microwave substrate facility is a low- to medium-volume fabricator, providing sufficient quantities for moderate-volume Department of Defense programs. These programs are traditional military or hi-reliability space applications; thus, the substrates are fabricated to the latest mil spec requirements to meet programs’ needs.

An important feature of the facility is its rapid response capability. The facility turns product around quickly in response to urgent engineering and production problems.

 

For more information, please contact:
Martin Priolo
Tel: +1 603 485 7940
martin.a.priolo@baesystems.com