Glass-to-Metal Seal, Feedthrough and Ceramic-to-Metal Seal Products from Tekna Seal

Glass-to-Metal Feedthroughs

Custom manufactured glass-to-metal hermetic seals from Tekna Seal are used in a variety of applications requiring hermeticity, including aerospace, automotive, batteries, electronic packages, high vacuum, medical, military and sensor packages. Tekna Seal also offers a limited selection of standard products.

Advantages of Tekna Seal Oxide Free Glass-to-Metal Hermetic Seals

The Tekna Seal proprietary oxide-free glass to metal hermetic seal process eliminates the need for pre-oxidizing of the metal components prior to glass sealing. This lack of heavy oxide interface between glass and metal allows for:

• Increased pressure withstanding
• Higher levels of hermeticity
• Repeatable, reliable processing

Eliminates the need for post oxide removal:

• Glass and metal are clean, free of etching residue
• Hazardous waste stream eliminated

Traditional Glass-to-Metal Sealing Process

Traditional glass-to-metal seals rely on a visible oxide layer formed on the metal components to allow glass flow and adhesion. This oxide layer limits the strength and hermeticity of a conventional glass-to-metal seal. This process also requires an additional operation to remove the oxide from other surfaces of the assembly. This cleanup process is usually a chemical etch, which will result in deterioration of dimensional tolerances and potentially contaminate the materials.

Material Selection for Glass-to-Metal Seals

The Tekna Seal oxide-free process allows us to use a multitude of glass-to-metal seal materials. This list is typical, yet not comprehensive. Many other materials are available upon request for your specific design.

Compression	Housings	Glass	Pins
High	3xx Stainless Steel, 1010 Cold Roll Steel, Hastelloy, Inconel, Nitronic, Duplex Stainless Steel	Barium Alkali Soda Lime Low Silica	52 Ni/Fe Alloy, 446 Stainless Steel, Copper cored 52 Ni/Fe alloy, Copper clad 52 Ni/Fe alloy, Molybdenum
Medium	Titanium	Cabal 12	Molybdenum Kovar Niobium, Tantalum
Low- Medium	Stainless Steel or Superalloy	Ceramic-Glass	Hastelloy, Nickel, Copper
Matched	Kovar 42 Ni/Fe Alloy	Borosilicate Borosilicate	Kovar 42 Ni/Fe Alloy
	Metal Injection Alloys	Barium Alkali Borosilicate	52 Ni/Fe alloy Kovar

Plating and Pin Finishes

Entire assemblies or pins selectively can be plated for improved corrosion resistance, solderability and ultrasonic wire bonding.

Plating	Solderability
Gold	Excellent
Tin	Excellent
Electrolytic Nickel	Good
Electroless Nickel	Good

View our Glass Seal Design Guidelines

Various Conductor Configurations

In addition to glass-to-metal seals, tubes and pins can be brazed metal-to-metal, or metal-to-ceramic. Hybrid assemblies containing both glass-to-metal and brazed components may also be produced. Typical applications include brazing ground leads or evacuation tubes to housing, often made of dissimilar metals.

1. Straight
2. Bent
3. Radiused
4. Flattened and Pierced
5. Headed
6. Tubes
7. Custom

Electrical Properties

1. Insulation Resistance
   1. Typical values exceed 1 Gigaohm at 100 VDC
   2. Volume resistance is always higher than surface resistance
2. Dielectric Properties
   1. Dielectric withstand voltage dependent upon joint geometry and dimensions of the seal
   2. Dielectric constant is dependent on the glass material selected

Below are typical values for some glasses:

Glass Material	Dielectric Constant 20° C 1 MHz	Loss Factor
Borosilicate	4.9-5.7	1.3-1.6
Barium Alkali	6.3-6.7	0.17-0.25
Soda Lime	7.2-7.3	0.90-1.00

Mechanical Properties

1. Operating Temperature Range: -65° to 200° C, tested by thermal shock from +200° to -65° air-to-air, with traditional sealing glasses. Up to 600° C with Ceramic-Glass.
2. Mechanical Strength: It is possible to achieve seals capable of withstanding pressures in excess of 20,000 psi with proper design and appropriate qualification testing.
3. Hermeticity: Tekna Seal can test seals to 1x10^-10 ATM• cc/sec Helium using a mass spectrometer. Actual leak rates are typically less than 1x10^-10.
4. Corrosion Resistance: A compression seal can be fabricated with stainless steel or other corrosion resistant metal body, the limiting factor for corrosion resistance is often the nickel iron alloy used for pin material. Our glass/ceramic material will allow the use of corrosion resistant pin materials such as Hastelloy or 3xx Stainless Steel.