Mountbatten equipment contract goes to Oxford Instruments

The University has awarded Oxford Instruments a contract for £2.5M for nine process tool systems to be used in the Mountbatten Building clean room.

The new research complex in the Mountbatten Building will serve the world-leading research of the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre. Completion of the new building is anticipated for summer 2008, when the Oxford Instruments tools will be sited within it.

The nine systems will provide leading-edge capabilities in the research and development of novel nanoelectronic, MEMS and photonic devices. The order includes both plasma etch and deposition tools, with two Plasmalab®System100 ICP etch tools, two Plasmalab80Plus open-loading RIE tools and two PlasmalabSystem100 PECVD tools, plus a number of Oxford Instruments’ newest products: a FlexAL® plasma/thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) tool, a Nanofab nanowire and nanotube growth tool, and a large-chamber Ionfab® ion beam system.

Andy Matthews, Managing Director of Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, comments: 'We are extremely proud to have been awarded this order by the University of Southampton and to be able to further our relationship with the University. This is a very significant order for us, not only commercially, but also as an endorsement of Oxford Instruments’ position at the forefront of providing high quality, innovative process tools which are enabling the next generation of electronic and nanotechnology devices.'