I have been working with Raith and their products for over 20 years at four different research-intensive universities in both the US and Europe. I have always enjoyed my interactions with Raith and I think this relationship has endured because we both share the desire to innovate in terms of available applications and also because they have a fair and pragmatic approach to system service and support. The service and support team have done a fantastic job of keeping the tools running over the years and are genuinely interested to work with a tool user to improve their products over time where possible.

Recently we have been making use of one of Raith’s most advanced and innovative tools, namely the VELION multispecies FIB-SEM. We are extremely pleased with the versatility of the VELION tool installed in our multiuser facility at UCSB. The UCSB Nanofabrication Facility has around 250 unique users each month spanning a wide range of research areas in physics, engineering, and material science. Our photonics users love the ability to pattern directly with stitch free writing modes with the capability to pattern over full 100 mm wafers. While some of our advanced materials groups are delighted that they can directly pattern materials that are incompatible with resists, developers and the associated processing at elevated temperatures.

Initially we worked with the more standard Au and Si ion beams but have recently enjoyed the enhanced resolution when patterning with Li ion in the GaBiLi source. My own personal research area of nanomagnetism for data storage applications has benefited from the capabilities of the VELION as we move from conventional 2D lithography to directly patterning quasi 3D materials.

As a large multiuser facility, we greatly appreciate that the Raith NANOSUITE software used to control the VELION can be accessed by a wide range of researcher scientists and engineers and used on many levels. For routine commercial applications it is relatively quick and simple to train engineers to turn out the products they require. For more experienced research scientists there are an enormous number of parameters that can be fine-tuned to achieve the required prototype devices.

Our facility is open to a wide range of academic, industrial and government users from around the world. If you are interested in the VELION’s capabilities, please visit our website https://www.nanotech.ucsb.edu/ or contact me directly (dread@ucsb.edu) for more information on how to become a user and to gain access to the capabilities of the VELION at UCSB.”