Oxford Instruments wins 9-system, £2.5m process tool order to equip new University of Southampton facility

Oxford Instruments, the high-technology tools and systems company, is pleased to announce that it has won an order for 9 process tool systems, worth a total in excess of £2.5m (~$5m), to equip a new cleanroom facility at the University of Southampton, UK. The new Mountbatten research complex will serve the world-leading research of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (www.ecs.soton.ac.uk) and the Optoelectronics Research Centre (www.orc.soton.ac.uk). Completion of the new building is anticipated for summer 2008, when the Oxford Instruments tools will be sited within it.

The 9 systems will provide the University with 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.

Oxford Instruments had already supplied the Optoelectronics Research Centre with three systems in 2006 and 2007, in a £1.2m order.

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.”

The University of Southampton (www.soton.ac.uk) is one of the top 10 research universities in the UK and has achieved consistently high scores for its teaching and learning activities. Nearly 20,000 students and 5,000 staff are based across several campuses. The University's discipline base is broad, encompassing all the major academic subjects, but also with a unique commitment to innovation, which is evidenced both in outstanding research and scholarship at the leading edge, and also in an ability to pioneer new approaches and techniques relevant to the world today.