ATEQ
special application: semiconductor housing leak test system:
Leak testing a completely enclosed item is in itself difficult.
When this item is small in size and does not have a lot of empty space,
it becomes even more of a chalenge. One of the most uesed method is to submerge
the item to test in a hot liquid and see if gas expansion creates a bubble.
Of course this is operator dependant and air bubbles naturally stick to components recently submerged
so it is difficult to know if you have a leak or not.
Another method involves putting the components to be tested in a high pressure chamber where a rare gas,
in general helium, is forced into the component for at least a 1/2 hour, and then quickly move those "charged"
components to a gas mass spectrometer to detect any helium comming out. That obviously cannot detect large defects
since helium escapes very fast from a large defect and the "charged" component is emptied in a second.
It is also slow and a production defect is only identified at least 1/2 hour later, with a system that costs about US$ 100,000.
Other methods very crude charge the component with a tinted liquid (ink) and wait overnight for the
ink to leak out and stain a paper towel: it is very slow and messy.
That's why ATEQ developped two unexpensive, clean and faster solutions to test enclosed components using air pressure.
The ATEQ microvalve system for leak testing sealed components is more geared towards components like integrated circuits with a very small volume of less than 1cubic centimeter..
The ATEQ Premier F with. sealed component leak test cycle is for larger components.
They both require a leak tight chamber in which the component to be tested is placed, with as little air volume as possible. They can only work if there is some "empty" air space inside the component to be tested.
