Oak Ridge National Laboratory offers world-leading Pulse Thermal Processing capabilities, encompassing two unique facilities – the high density plasma arc lamp system and the PulseForge 3300. The plasma arc lamp is capable of producing extremely high power densities of up to 20 kW/cm2 over areas beyond 1000 cm2. The stable plasma can achieve a temperature in excess of 10,000 K and produces a broad radiant spectrum with wavelengths ranging from 0.2 to 1.4 µm (UV to IR). Such large area processing not only speeds manufacturing by increasing the throughput, but it also provides a one dimensional thermal gradient across the sample which provides more uniform microstructures and leads to more uniform electrical and optical properties. The general benefits of Pulse Thermal Processing with the plasma arc lamp are low thermal budget, increased throughput, higher heating rates, the ability to process on lower temperature substrates, and being able to control diffusion on the nanometer scale. The PulseForge 3300 offers even higher density pulses of radiant energy at speeds up to several microseconds. The PulseForge system, developed by NovaCentrix, incorporates a conveyor belt platform that can process thin films at belt speeds of several hundred feet per minute. The PulseForge 3300 excels at drying and sintering of conductive inks for flexible elecronics, but also has applications in photovoltaics, displays, sensors, and solid state lighting.
- Power Density = 20,000 W/cm2
- Heating Rate = 600,000 °C/s
- Maximum Temp = 3180°C (melt Re)
- Heating Times = 1-10 ms
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