Where to purchase Quartz Monitor Crystals for Thin Film Vacuum?

Background of development of quartz monitor crystals:

Quartz crystal components can date back to 1880’s, but have been widely used only in recent decades.

The development of the industry experiences roughly four stages:

Initiation stage, development stage, growth stage and explosion stage.

Initiation stage (before 1960):

Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered piezoelectric effect of quartz in 1880.

In 1921, Cady made the first quartz crystal resonator.

Since 1950’s, artificial crystals had been commercialized, solving the problem of key materials for manufacturing quartz crystal components; from then on, the technology for manufacturing crystal components had been rapidly developed.

Development stage (1960’s-1990’s):

Along with the development of microelectronic technology and international information industry, the process and equipment for manufacturing quartz crystal components were highly automated.

Before 1980’s, quartz crystal components were mostly used in military applications; since 1980’s, they had been widely used in civilian applications.

Since then, the manufacturing of quartz crystal components in China had also been transformed from military use towards civilian use.

Growth stage (1990’s-beginning of 21st century):

Jointly driven by great development of home appliances, PC industry and telecommunication, the industry of quartz crystal components experienced a golden period of development.

• China was an important commercial user of international quartz crystal component enterprises;
• the key sites for R&D and manufacturing of quartz crystal components was also transferred from oversea countries to China;
• excellent Chinese quartz crystal enterprises presented excellent competitiveness in global market;
• with development for ten years, China became an important manufacturing base of quartz crystal components in the world.

Explosion stage (2010 up to now):

The sales volume of smart phones, typically iPhone, has increased sharply; Chinese telecommunication technology has accomplished the upgrading from 3G to 4G.

The emergence of terminal devices e.g. smart phones, tablet computer and wearable devices drives the explosive growth of demand on crystals.

Thanks to the advantages in technology and capacity built up since 1980’s, Chinese manufacturers are rising rapidly.

As a major country in electronic manufacturing industry, China correspondingly has high demand on quartz crystal components.

In fact, as crystal component manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taiwan move their factories to China for manufacturing their established products, the manufacturers in Chinese mainland have seized this opportunity to receive the industrial transfer;

• thanks to technical strength and improvement ability accumulated from R&D and manufacturing practices for many years, some Chinese leading enterprises have learned necessary technology and process;
• they make technical upgrading based on existing technology, accelerate the manufacturing of new products, and gradually narrow the technical gap between international leading enterprises and Chinese ones;
• thanks to the advantages in manufacturing cost, Chinese enterprises make great progress, and begin to be global leaders of most kinds of quartz crystal components.

Explosion stage (2010 up to now):

The sales volume of smart phones, typically iPhone, has increased sharply; Chinese telecommunication technology has accomplished the upgrading from 3G to 4G.

The emergence of terminal devices e.g. smart phones, tablet computer and wearable devices drives the explosive growth of demand on crystals.

Thanks to the advantages in technology and capacity built up since 1980’s, Chinese manufacturers are rising rapidly.

As a major country in electronic manufacturing industry, China correspondingly has high demand on quartz crystal components.

as for the category “assembled piezoelectric quartz” alone, more than ten billion pieces were exported in 2018.

Why to purchase quartz monitor crystals for vacuum coating made in China?

Compared with other crystal components, quartz monitor crystals for vacuum coating started later in China.It grew along with the rise of Chinese optical manufacturing in the world. By following the western optical enterprises which moved to China, Chinese early optical industry grew rapidly. As China becomes the global manufacturing base of optical glasses (more than 80% of global production) and optical lenses (more than 70% of global production), the demand on quartz crystals for measuring film thickness of vacuum coating increases greatly.To meet the demand of market, the first enterprises that manufacture quartz crystal components for military use, e.g. SungThai product team, begin to manufacture quartz monitor crystals by using their technology in quartz crystal components accumulated for many years together with western modern manufacturing equipment. From initial small production to later OEM/ODM manufacturing for global brands, until final building of their own brands and market positions, they have experienced nearly 30 years. Nowadays, the products from Chinese enterprises which early manufactured quartz monitor crystals for vacuum coating have been used by most of Chinese modern optical manufacturing enterprises (including Luxottica, Carl Zeiss, Phoenix Optics…), and have successfully replaced expensive imported quartz monitor crystals.It effectively reduces cost and increases productivity for most enterprises.

The product team of SunThai quartz monitor crystal is a Chinese leading manufacturer of high precision quartz crystals of military and aerospace class, and also is one of developer of Chinese national standard for quartz monitor crystals. The quartz crystal components manufactured by the product team have been successfully used in communication satellite, satellite launching and moon landing program. The quartz monitor crystals for film thickness measurement manufactured under the same system have also been recognized and used by the enterprises like Carl Zeiss and Luxottica.