Silicon Valley Micro Service, LLC (408)373-8140

Certificates of Calibration:
Our calibration system is operated to meet the requirements of the industry standard for calibration lab operation. This document known as ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994 or "Z540" for short specifies how to run a proper calibration lab. We also are compliant with many of the requirements of ISO 17025 and ISO 10012. Our technical staff is old equipment savvy and new equipment competent.


• Standard Accessories:
  Standard accessories with all acquisitions.
  
  
• 12 Month Warranty:
  12 Month warranty with most equipment we sell. Some restrictions apply.
  
  
• 10-Day Acceptance Period:
  10 Days to accept your purchase. If you’re not satisfied with our equipment, for any reason, simply notify us by the tenth day.
  
  
• Damage-Free Shipping
  We ship all of our items using Foam-In-Place shipping technology to eliminate the possibility of equipment damage while in transit. This ensures that our products will arrive to your location in the best condition possible.
  
  
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Calibration

• We can calibrate most general-purpose electronic test equipment in our state-of-the art calibration facility.
  
  
• We calibrate using written or automated procedures.
  
  
• We provide calibration certificates and labels. Our prices are reasonable and quality excellent.
  
  
• Our calibration system is operated to meet the requirements of the industry standard for calibration lab operation. This document known as ANSI/NCSL Z540-1-1994 or "Z540" for short specifies how to run a proper calibration lab. We also are compliant with many of the requirements of ISO 17025 and ISO 10012. Our technical staff is old equipment savvy and new equipment competent.
  

Repair

• We will evaluate your broken or failed test equipment for a fee.
  
  
• Our evaluation includes a preliminary function check, looking for an easy fix, and an explanation of the options available for repair and replacement of the bad unit.
  Easy fixes can save you a lot of money! Loose or oxidized connectors are often at fault on equipment more than ten years old. We use Stabilant 22 to make sure your connectors never fail again.
  
  
• If the equipment requires parts, we will try to find them.
  
  
• If the equipment is available for replacement we will quote you.
  
  
• If the equipment is simply worn out, we will tell you.
  

Obsolete and unsupported equipment repair is often unsuccessful but we will give any unit our best effort and provide you with an honest evaluation and dependable fixes.

Feel free to contact us with your calibration and repair needs.

 A calibration is usually preformed after Calibration verification has been preformed and the instrument has been found to be out of spec. Your tool can be out of calibration for a number of reasons:

Liner encoder values need to be reset in the DRO.

Micrometer mounting can be skewed   

Bearings can be loose or worn

Stage can be warped or worn

 We commonly repair the above problems.  After the calibration has been performed, another calibration verification is done and a calibration sticker is affixed to the scope. A calibration report and certificate are generated and sent to the customer.

Calibration standard:

 SVMS, Inc. uses standards which are traceable to NIST. The VLSI calibration standards include chrome on glass for roughness, step height and film thickness calibration and are also available for purchase.

To properly calibrate your reticle with a stage micrometer, align the zero line (beginning) of the stage micrometer with the zero line (beginning) of the reticle. Now, carefully scan over until you see the lines line up again. You can then use a simple ratio to determine the value that each line represents in your reticle.

In the example above, the eyepiece micrometer (reticle image) is on the top and the stage micrometer image is on the bottom. The stage micrometer is 1 mm long with 100 divisions so each division of the stage micrometer is one one-hundredth of a mm (0.01mm or 10 um). Hint, you move the decimal point over three places to the right to change mm to micrometers.

The eyepiece micrometer is divided into 100 units. We don't need to know the actual distance between marks on it.

When the zero marks are lined up, scan across and look for a convenient point where the lines converge again. If you look at the 30 mark on the reticle, you will see pretty close alignment with the stage micrometer. How many divisions? Did you say 20? You are right! And, if each line is 10um wide, what will 20 lines equal? Answer: 200um.

Now it is just a simple math ratio. 30 divisions of the reticle (eyepiece micrometer) equal 200 micrometers. So what does one division on the reticle equal? Let's see, 30 is to 200 as one is to X. Remember how to do a ratio? Two fractions, 30 over 200 equals 1 over X. Cross multiply, you get 30X=200um, solve for X by dividing both sides by 30 and X equals 6.7 um. Notice that they line up again at 60 but alignment is off by one at 90. If we use 90 and 61 (610um) we get 6.8um. The wider the interval, the more accurate your results should be.

Remember, this distance between reticle lines is only good for that particular objective lens and it may not come out to be a nice round number. When you switch to a different objective, you must recalibrate.

Quiz time: Our stage micrometer has a line 1mm long with 100 divisions. That means that each division is one one-hundredth of a mm (.01mm or 10um). When looking at it with the reticle, you notice that the lines converge at 8 and again at 16. We will choose 16. At the 16 mark on the reticle, we notice 60 lines on the stage micrometer. What does each mark on the reticle represent?

If you got 37.5 um, give yourself an A!