EBPG at University of California, Berkeley, Irfan Siddiqi
We interviewed Irfan Siddiqi, Professor at UC Berkeley, and asked him for his honest opinion about using a RAITH EBPG5150. Next to describing his user experience, he gives insight […]
Dr. Lothar Hahn
Nanofabrication Researcher
“We decided on an EBPG5200, which combines three functions that are essential in research: a high level of precision, high flexibility, and reliability of use. This combination is critical in reproducible production of complex components for advanced research.
An example is silicon photonics, where electrical and optical components are integrated onto a single microchip. The manufacturing process for these chips requires high precision in two different areas: first, nm-range dimensional accuracy in writing the optical components (no stitching); in further process steps, the aligned electrical components are written on the same chip. This involves up to four complete process cycles with maximum permissible offsets of only a few nm. The EBPG5200Z provides a platform for this application that is easy to use and reproducibly delivers the desired results.
We receive orders from internal customers at KIT as well as from external research institutions via KNMF. Substrate geometry ranges from 8“ wafers to components only a few mm in size, while substrate thicknesses vary from a few 100µm to several mm. RAITH’s platform and holders enable us to manage these substrates easily and securely. The Z drive of the EBPG5200Z allows substrates of varying thickness to be rapidly set to the focus level (with minor electron optical compensation).
The GUI is clear and largely intuitive.
Service
Routine maintenance of the system is conducted annually by RAITH Service and includes hardware and configuration checks. This safeguards the reliability of the system. Minor bugs are fixed remotely by the service department. We can usually resume work after a few hours.
RAITH is extremely interested in continuing to advance the system in line with research-based requirements. An annual User Meeting is held where ideas and requests are exchanged; for example, RAITH and its users are currently discussing the possibility of writing on curved substrates.
Overall, we are extremely satisfied with the EBPG5200 and with RAITH’s customer service. “
