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Chemistry Laboratory

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The CDL Chemistry Laboratory is part of CDL’s Mechanical Design, Precision Machining, and Finishing Division and provides high quality and rapid turnaround services in gold plating, electromagnetic component electroforming, and specialty plating to streamline CDL’s R&D processes and provide similar services to the greater astronomy community and other customers.

Gold Plating

Unique Capabilities and Services.jpg — Most of CDL’s manufactured components employ machined brass or copper pieces, allowing for gold plating directly onto that base metal. Only one gold process is currently in use: the high purity gold (soft gold) required by the wire bond assembly technique used in microfabrication techniques.

**Electroforming**

*An aluminum mandrel of a feed horn*

Electroforming is a precision manufacturing process in which metal is grown onto a shaped mandrel (usually aluminum for the CDL process) using electroplating. Then, the mandrel is separated using an alkaline chemical dissolution to produce a freestanding, highly accurate metal part. In radio astronomy, this process is useful because it enables extremely smooth, dimensionally precise waveguides, corrugated feed horns, and antenna components, minimizing RF loss, scattering, and polarization errors—especially at mm- and sub-mm-wavelengths where tolerances and surface quality are critical.

**Unique Capabilities and Services**

*Pulse plating is used to apply*
*plating on microwave devices*
*with small features*

CDL’s chemistry lab has developed specialized techniques and hardware to plate small feature sizes on microwave devices. In addition, the lab has specialized fixtures and techniques to plate the interior walls of stainless-steel waveguides.  This allows for a composite waveguide assembly which provides the high thermal isolation needed for cryogenic receivers with the low signal loss qualities of copper waveguides.

The NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory and NSF Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Founded in 1956, the NSF NRAO provides state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the international scientific community. NSF NRAO telescopes are open to all astronomers regardless of institutional or national affiliation. Observing time on NSF NRAO telescopes is available on a competitive basis to qualified scientists after evaluation of research proposals on the basis of scientific merit, the capability of the instruments to do the work, and the availability of the telescope during the requested time. NSF NRAO also provides both formal and informal programs in education and public outreach for teachers, students, the general public, and the media.

Connect with NRAO

The NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory and NSF Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.