Building an Analyzing Focused Ion Beam for Nanotechnology

The FIBLYS project involves 4 research and 3 industry partners from 4 countries:

Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) located in Jena, Germany, is a non-profit R&D organization of the state of Thuringia. 200 employees are working primarily in the fields of optics, material science, and light-matter interaction. The Photonic Silicon Division has a long standing experience in laser enhanced deposition of semiconductors on low temperature substrates using different deposition technologies and applying various laser systems ranging from cw to short pulse lasers to crystallize amorphous silicon layers on glass particularly for thin film solar cells. Moreover, the division is concerned with nanostructuring of silicon and bottom-up vapor phase growth of nanowires for novel electronic, photonic and sensor devices.

TESCAN, a.s. is a Czech private company developing and manufacturing Scanning Electron Microscopes. It was established in 1991 and has grown from a 10 person company into an enterprise with more than 140 employees. Tescan incorporates both the long-term experience of leading scientists and research technicians who have worked in the branch of electron microscopy for many years, and creative attitudes of highly educated young people. Modern manufacturing facility includes metal working shops, clean rooms, assembly, final testing, research engineering and application laboratories. In the past 14 years, Tescan designed several generations of electron microscopes: Proxima (not produced anymore), two generations of tungsten VEGA (launched in 1998, currently 8 types), two generations of field-emission MIRA (launched in 2005, currently 4 types) and combined SEM / FIB called LYRA (launched in 2007). These machines have been deployed to numerous industries, hospitals, research centers and universities world-wide.

Tofwerk AG (Switzerland) is a young company specializing in development of time-of-flight mass spectrometers for fast process analysis, mostly for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). It has currently 17 employees, 8 PhDs and 4 in production.TOFWERK has received the 2003 DeVigier Swiss award for best innovative startup. Tofwerk has strong expertice in ion transfer interfaces to couple TOFMS to various ion sources, including high pressure ion sources and has successfullyc built, together with EMPA, a first GD-TOF prototype for thin layer characterization, capable of time resolving a pulsed RF plasma. Tofwerk has helped in the design of several SIMS instruments. Tofwerk has expertise in fast data acquisition and currently supports the world fastests data rate with its DAQ software.

SmarAct GmBH (Germany) is a young innovative company, which offers products for micro- and nano-positioning. Founded in 2005, SmarAct currently employs twelve people. SmarAct’s core competence lies in the field of modular and compact piezo-based positioners that are offered in different sizes, for different environments and with integrated position sensors. Furthermore, SmarAct designs and builds scalable control modules, which drive the positioners with up to nanometre resolution and which can perform closed-loop positioning control with feedback from the integrated sensors. SmarAct uses these modules to offer its customers complete miniaturised robotic systems that are capable of very precise handling tasks. Currently, the products are applied in various positioning tasks in scanning electron microscopes and under light microscopes, and to position optical components in laser technology.

The Research and Development Institute for Information Technology Tools and Systems (OFFIS) was founded in 1991 and works closely together with the University of Oldenburg based on an agreement of cooperation and is allowed to use the term "An-Institut" (associated institute). OFFIS is an application oriented research and development institute and a centre of excellence for selected areas of information technology and its fields of application.
In the course of a re-structuring in 2008, OFFIS founded the Technology Cluster „Automated Nanohandling“ TC ANH. The TC ANH is closely related to the Department of Microrobotics and Control Engineering (AMiR) at the University of Oldenburg and engages itself in the following areas of research and technology development: Modular, multifunctional micro-and nanorobotic systems, sensor-supported handling of micro- and nanoobjects inside the SEM, automation of such handling sequences, capturing and processing of SEM images, 3-D image reconstruction from SEM images, micro force sensors and tactile sensors, microrobotic control, haptic and interactive control of micro- and nanohandling, AFM-based nanohandling, electron beam-induced material deposition in SEM, nanoassembly and nanoengineering. The TC ANH is headed scientifically by Prof. Dr. Sergej Fatikow and managed by Dr. Albert Sill.

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) is a materials science and technology research institution. It belongs to the ETH domain and as such is an important element in education, science and innovation in Switzerland. It specializes in applications, focused research and development, and provides high-level services in the field of sustainable materials science and technology. Its core tasks are innovative collaboration with industry and public institutions, ensuring the safety of people and the environment, knowledge propagation and university-level teaching. EMPA engages in interdisciplinary work in a large number of specialized disciplines. Its key areas of research are grouped in five programs entitled Nanotechnology, Adaptive Materials Systems, Materials for Health and Performance, Materials for Energy Technologies and Technosphere – Atmosphere. Over 800 people work at its three sites in Dübendorf, St. Gallen and Thun. There are more than one hundred PhD candidates and hundred undergraduates. EMPA also offers training to 40 interns and trainees. EMPA 's increasingly good showing in the various scientific indicators testifies to its high standard of scientific activity and achievement. EMPA employees published over 300 times in peer-reviewed journals in 2006 and made hundreds of scientific contributions (more than 300 as key note speakers and invited guests) to national and international conferences and scientific symposia. Empa organized or coorganized 52 conferences. Members of EMPA's staff received 30 prizes and awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements. The EMPA Academy provides a forum for lively information sharing. Congresses, lecture series, seminars and teaching events cater to scientists seeking a dialogue, specialists looking to improve their knowledge and non-specialists who want to find out about current technological developments.

Laboratoire de Microscopies et d’Etude de Nanostructures (LMEN) at the University of Reims (France) was founded by Prof. Michel Troyon in 1990. The competence of this team concerns the study and characterization of nanostructures and nano-objects by techniques, which are mainly the electron and near-field microscopies. For this purpose an original instrument has been developed which is in complete adequacy with the goal of the present CRAFT project. A combined SPM/SNOM has been implemented inside a SEM that allows performing multidimensional analysis (nanotribological and nanomechanical measurements). It is also possible to perform cathodoluminescence imaging and spectroscopy of varied semiconductors (i.e., GaN-based quantum wells and quantum dots, etc.) by near-field detection with an improved resolution (an order of magnitude in certain cases) with respect to classical systems. EBIC (electron beam induced current) characterizations with near-field detection, which should also considerably improve the resolution, are also actually under investigation. Near-field optical photoluminescence is also used in association with microspectrofluorospectrometry by laser confocal microscopy for studying biological cells. Another competence of the LMEN is the fabrication (and associated characterizations) of metallic, magnetic or semiconducting nanowires by electrochemical deposition in nanoporous membranes.