Surrey NanoSystems has won an order for its Gamma 1000 thin-film sputtering tool, from Poland's Institute of Electron Technology (ITE). The tool will be delivered to ITE by the end of 2007 and will be a key platform for the institute's research and development activities into microelectronics and optoelectronics fabrication.

Gamma 1000 features a highly modular architecture, making it very versatile, and the system is often selected for research and development applications. ITE has specified a system configuration that is capable of depositing metal, dielectric and semiconducting films, using sputter and sputter-etch processes. This configuration will be one of the largest and most sophisticated sputtering systems that the company has ever built.

The tool will also feature a very high vacuum capability of 1x10-9 Torr, which is as much as two orders of magnitude higher than some other commercially available sputtering systems, providing an exceptionally pure environment for film deposition.

Commenting on the order, Surrey NanoSystems' CTO Ben Jensen, said, "We've always known that our tool is very versatile, but were surprised to find that we were the only company tendering for this order – even though this was a public request. The very large configuration ITE requires really demonstrates the modularity of the underlying architecture, and we are delighted that this highly capable system will be used for such high-profile research."