SURAGUS GmbH, a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Non-Destructive Testing Dresden, offers the ‘EddyCus Thin-Film lab’ specifically for contactless real-time thickness and sheet resistance determination of low and high conductive thin films on glass, wafer, plastics or foils.

Problem

Functional thin films on float glass and foils are used in photovoltaic cells, touch screens, flat panel displays, OLED lighting and smart glass applications or anti-static films or surface heating applications. Quality assurance and process monitoring is required in order to ensure an optimal and homogeneous conductive functionality of thin-films.

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Solution

The EddyCus Thin-Film lab employs the eddy current method that utilises local conductivity variations of the test objects for the characterisation of correlated quality characteristics such as thickness, conductivity, homogeneity and purity or physical changes. The complex eddy current signal contains various data about the test object, which can be separated in into simple or complex algorithms. The eddy current testing technology is based on a powerful eddy current electronics with a frequency range from 10kHz to 100MHz, which is combined with different sensor concepts depending on the application.

Applications

Contactless conductivity measurement of functional thin films (e.g. TCOs).

Platform

The system is connected to a measurement PC via Ethernet. Sheet resistance range: 0.01-1Ohm/sq; 1-100Ohm/sq; substrate supporting surface of 100x100mm², 200x200mm² and 300x300mm² available. Measurement of gap 1, 5, 15, 25, 40 and 60mm is available (special sizes on request).