The use of Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalances (TQCM) is highly recommended by the European Space Agency (ESA) to demonstrate the effectiveness of a Vacuum Thermal Bakeout.
We have two vacuum facilities which are set up to ESA requirements, to provide state of the art outgassing monitoring using a trio of TQCMs.
A TQCM is a device used to monitor in real-time the evolution of the amount of volatile condensable materials emitted from a device/unit under test. This is achieved by measuring the mass flow of contaminants that condense at a specific temperature on its sensing surface.
Our TQCM Monitoring system is fully data logged. We have access to software and analysis methods to undertakefull interrogation of the results achieved and confirm the outgassing rate achieved.