The Extraordinary Science of Quartz Glass

When I started at Hongwo in 2012, I saw quartz glass as more than a clear material. It was a scientific wonder. Today, I’ll show you how this material is transforming industries. It’s impacting everything from semiconductors to space exploration.

Quartz Glass

The Molecular Magic of Quartz Glass

What makes our synthetic quartz glass (99.999% pure SiO₂) so extraordinary? The answer lies in its atomic structure:

Thermal Superpowers‌

Handles thermal shocks that can break regular glass (tested from -270 °C to 1100 °C in seconds).

Thermal expansion coefficient of 0.54 x 10⁻⁶/K (compared to 9 x 10⁻⁶/K for borosilicate glass)

Our 2023 tests showed zero structural degradation after 5,000 rapid temperature cycles.

Optical Perfection‌

Transmits 92% of light from deep UV (185 nm) to near-infrared (2,500 nm).

Critical for EUV lithography machines producing 3 nm chips.

Hongwo’s proprietary polishing achieves a surface roughness of <0.5 nm RMS.

Chemical Invincibility‌

Hydrofluoric acid attacks only occur at temperatures above 300 °C.

Perfect for semiconductor wet benches handling aggressive acids.

Our accelerated aging tests show <0.1 ppb contamination after 1 year in concentrated HCl.

Hongwo’s manufacturing breakthroughs.

Traditional quartz production left microscopic defects. Our innovations solved this:

Vacuum Plasma Deposition: Builds quartz layer by layer at 2,300 °C with <1 ppm of impurities.

Crystal Growth Control: Achieves consistent OH content below 1 ppm.

Nano-Scale Inspection: Our proprietary SEM technique detects defects as small as 5 nm.

Where Quartz Glass Makes the Impossible Possible

Chip Manufacturing‌

Our 450 mm quartz crucibles enable defect-free silicon crystal growth.

Etch-resistant components extend plasma tool lifetimes by five times.

Life Sciences‌

Quartz microfluidics enable single-cell analysis with zero background signals.

COVID vaccine storage vials show 0% reactivity after 24 months.

The Next Frontier: Quantum and Beyond

Our current research includes:

Quantum Computing: Ultra-pure quartz as qubit substrates (showing a 10x coherence time improvement)

Fusion Energy: 2.5 m-diameter quartz plasma containment vessels

Medical Implants: Bioactive quartz scaffolds for bone regeneration

A Personal Reflection:

In my ten years at Hongwo, I’ve seen quartz glass turn sci-fi ideas into reality. The best developments are still to come. This is especially true in quantum tech. Quartz’s purity creates new possibilities.