About Film Sense
Our mission is to create compact and affordable multi-wavelength ellipsometer systems that provide optimal measurement solutions for a wide range of thin film metrology applications.
We provide our customers with honest and objective advice on how our ellipsometers can best meet their metrology requirements.
We encourage our customers to play an active role in the evolution of our technology by suggesting new hardware and software features. Customers can also create customized thin film metrology solutions by integrating our multi-wavelength ellipsometers into their systems.
Film Sense was founded in 2013 by Blaine Johs, who has more than 30 years of experience in the spectroscopic ellipsometry industry.
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Testimonials
“These FS-1 ellipsometers are one of the best upgrades to our atomic layer processing reactors, and have now become an integral part of all our experiments on ALD and ALE.”
Dr. Sumit Agarwal - Colorado School of Mines
“The Film Sense FS-1 in situ ellipsometer has greatly facilitated data acquisition and understanding of the thin film deposition processes in our lab. The instrument was relatively easy to incorporate onto a vacuum chamber, and includes a user-friendly manual and tutorial to explain basic operation. With this tool, we are able to collect much more information during a deposition, including measurements between ALD half-cycles that are not feasible with ex situ techniques. These ellipsometers have become an integral part of our laboratory research, and we look forward to continuing to work with Film Sense in the future."
Rachel Nye, PhD - student in Chemical Engineering
Parsons Research Group, North Carolina State University
“Overall performance, affordability and ease of use has made the FS-1 a workhorse for our ALD process as well as equipment development efforts. The next generation FS-1EX provides a combination of higher beam intensity and wider spectral range improving both precision and accuracy. For metallic thin films such as TiN, Pt and Ru, two additional IR wavelengths enhance the ability to monitor film thickness and resistivity in-situ during growth. This enhanced performance helps us to streamline development efforts by effectively understanding the impact of different process conditions on film quality in real-time.”
Bruce Rayner - Principal Scientist
Atomic Layer Deposition, Kurt J. Lesker Company
Click here to learn more about how Kurt J. Lesker Company is using Film Sense Ellipsometers.
"The FS-1 is an excellent basic ellipsometer. Reliable, easy to use, low maintenance, and great value for money. Films Sense have been great at helping us characterize our thin films, and get accurate measurements. Fully recommended. ”
Dr Ruy Sebastian Bonilla - Research Fellow
Oxford Materials Department
“We have purchased four Film Sense products for our small R&D group. We have three FS-1 units and one FS-1EX unit with the RT300 mapping stage. The Film Sense software is the most intuitive and easiest to use of all the ellipsometers I have experience using. Our favorite feature is the multi-sample analysis method. This feature allows you to determine the optical constants for new or poorly fitting films by simply measuring a small number of samples with various thicknesses. Having knowledge of the actual thickness values is not even necessary. The software understands the optical constants must be the same for all samples, and each sample varies only in thickness. The user just needs to collect the data and press the fit button. New films layers are created in just a couple of minutes. We also love the automatic adjustment for sample height on the RT300 mapping stage. Our process engineers are constantly adjusting the height on competitor’s units without this automatic feature.”
-Staff Systems Engineer at large semiconductor OEM
"The Film Sense FS-1 is a powerful and reliable tool for in-situ characterization of ALD films. The real-time dynamic thickness measurements were critical to understanding the growth characteristics of multicomponent oxides, such as lead zirconate-titanate (PZT), which I studied for my dissertation research through the University of Maryland. The in-situ thickness data I collected with the FS-1 allowed me to screen precursors much more quickly than if I had to rely on ex-situ characterization methods. I continuously used the FS-1 for over five years and haven't experienced any downtime other than during occasional realignments when switching from ex-situ to in-situ measurement modes. The FS-1 would make a valuable addition to any laboratory looking to enhance their nondestructive thin-film thickness measurement capability."
- Nicholas A Strnad, Ph. D.
"To summarize our nearly 5-year ownership experience of the FS-1 tool, all I can say, it’s most probably by far the highest performance/cost tool I have ever acquired in my independent research career. Besides the tool itself, as an ellipsometry expert, Film Sense has been very responsive to our data analysis/fit inquiries and saved us valuable research time by sharing his expertise. We are looking forward to getting their latest generation system with additional features that we can integrate for good on either of the reactors. Right now, our single FS-1 tool is going back-and-forth between thermal and plasma reactor based on our needs."
- Necmi Biyikli, Assistant Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Connecticut
Click here to learn more about how University of Connecticut
is using Film Sense Ellipsometers as part of their research.
"The system (FS-XY150) is great and we are having an increase of users using it. I am happy with the system and I direct users to use it when I am training them on our ALD deposition system. It gives great results and the customer support is quick and helpful too."
- Tony Whipple, Scientist
Minnesota Nano Center
