Drilling Quartz Glass Wafers: Quartz Glass (CTE 0.59 x 10^-6 /K, 260 nm – 2.5 um); Drilling to +/-0.02 mm hole position. Single-piece prototypes to production volumes, quoted from your drawing.
Ask any process engineer what makes quartz glass difficult and the answer is specific: natural-quartz batches vary in metallic ppm, so semiconductor lots need certs per melt. Our drilling line is tooled around exactly that – diamond core drills, ultrasonic assist and laser percussion heads – holding +/-0.02 mm hole position on parts from 0.1 – 30 mm thick.
Specification envelope
| Material | Quartz Glass (GE214-equivalent, semiconductor grade) |
|---|---|
| Thermal expansion (CTE) | 0.59 x 10^-6 /K |
| Service temperature | 1,050 C continuous |
| Transmission range | 260 nm – 2.5 um |
| Density | 2.20 g/cm3 |
| Knoop hardness | 500 kg/mm2 |
| Refractive index | 1.459 @ 587 nm |
| Stock thickness | 0.20 – 60 mm |
| Maximum blank size | 450 mm diameter |
| Process | Drilling |
| Working tolerance | +/-0.02 mm hole position |
| Minimum feature | 0.15 mm laser / 0.5 mm mechanical |
| Surface finish | exit-chip controlled below 0.1 mm |
| Thickness window | 0.1 – 30 mm |
| Edge condition | optional chamfered hole entry |
| Wafer formats | 2", 3", 4", 6", 8" and 12" with SEMI flats or notch |
| TTV | under 3 – 5 um by format |
| RFQ inputs | PDF/DXF/STEP drawing, quantity brackets, surface and edge spec |
Process window
Drilling earns its place through through-holes, blind holes and countersinks at densities beyond 1,000 holes per part. Its boundary condition – hole-to-edge distance should stay above 1.5x thickness to protect strength – is the first thing our DFM review checks.
Beyond this page, Quartz Glass routinely runs through lapping, ultrasonic machining, coring, etching in our shop – most real parts combine two or three of these steps.
Design guidance
Before sending the RFQ, check these against your drawing:
- Material note: natural-quartz batches vary in metallic ppm, so semiconductor lots need certs per melt.
- Process boundary: hole-to-edge distance should stay above 1.5x thickness to protect strength.
- Over-specification is the quiet budget killer: a 20/10 scratch-dig face costs roughly three times an 80/50 face, so grade each surface individually.
The full rules live in our tolerance design guide and holes and edges design guide.
Who orders this
drilling quartz glass wafers shows up across semiconductor equipment (view ports, wafer carriers, plasma rings, chamber windows); laboratory instruments (cuvettes, sight glasses, stir-cell windows). Background reading on the underlying material science: ScienceDirect: quartz glass.
The fastest route to a quote is geometry: use the 3D builder below, draw a dimensioned 2D drawing from it, or open the site-wide custom glass machining 3D + 2D builder for fully custom parts.
Engineers scoping this work usually also review CNC machining capability, high-purity quartz guide, tolerance design guide.
Buyer questions, answered
What equipment runs the drilling work?
Diamond core drills, ultrasonic assist and laser percussion heads.
Is there a minimum order for drilling quartz glass wafers?
No. Single prototypes are accepted, and pricing steps down at 10, 100 and 1,000 pieces.
How fast can prototypes ship?
Machined prototypes ship in 5 – 10 working days. Coated or bonded parts add 1 – 2 weeks depending on queue slots.
What files do you need for a quote?
A dimensioned PDF plus DXF or STEP geometry. If only a sketch exists, our drawing review service formalizes it before quoting.
Specifications on this page were last reviewed by our engineering team in September 2026.