General Electronic Devices manufactures crystal blanks from raw material quartz bars to final-sealed and fully tested components for use in our oscillators and discrete crystal elements.
We maintain an inventory of cultured quartz the quality of which, in many cases, approaches the best the industry can produce. We control all manufacturing process and assure that purchased material supporting those processes produced a finished product with extra quality and performance at no additional cost.
Special attention is given to the beginning stages of production. Tight control of the angle of cut, high grade lapping compounds, consistent monitoring of flatness of both lapping plates and crystal blanks and precise chemical etching at times exceeding two times the minimum military requirements all assure a locked-in, high quality performance crystal. These controls give that extra kick through further processing and final environmental testing.
All electrodes making electrical contact with the major surfaces of the crystal are deposited by vacuum deposition in ultra pure, high vacuum coating machines using special fixtures. This allows high volume with absolute registration of electrodes between one side of the crystal and the other.
Photo-etched masking and pure base coating materials such as Aluminum, Chrome, Gold and Silver – plus high vacuum equipment using evaporation and E-beam produce electrically conductive contact points to the crystal surface.  These gives near zero resistance and high energy trapping of the crystal’s electric field with minimum long-term aging. Final frequency adjustment of the crystal is done exclusively in custom-made, high vacuum evaporation equipment and our new state-of-the-art automated equipment.
Little final adjustment is required or desirable because additional amounts of metal used in excess in this process will degrade the overall performance of the crystal and aggravate spurious responses.
We have total sealing capability at GED and can package our crystals in any of three different styles including cold weld and resistance projection welding. We can seal as many as 4,000 units a day from the DIP oscillator, HC-45, standard HC-49 holder, special HC49/US holder, all military crystal packages including TO-5 and TO-8 and surface mount packages – all welded in pure, dry nitrogen atmosphere.
Our quartz crystals and oscillators are all 100% tested for any leaking.
We make extensive use of various types of electronic test equipment for in-process and final testing. Military, High-Rel and commercial type crystals are tested on military CI meters, as well as on computerized environmental test system that can be programmed to measure and record frequency, activity and spurious responses from as low as minus 55°C to as high as 125°C.
All GED's product are marked permanently by laser or by engraving. All our crystals and oscillators are backed by a 100% guarantee to meet or exceed – the specifications of our customers.