In its twenty years of existence, Ion Beam Services has succeeded by using the philosophy of applying ground-breaking science to daily production. The company continues to pioneer research in semiconductor technology and the development of applications and services to exploit new techniques and expand its knowledge base.

Workforce - Skills
With a workforce that comprises almost 70% university graduates, with 10% of these holding PhDs in electronic engineering, IBS places a strong emphasis on continuous training in order to ensure its employees remain at the forefront of semiconductor technology.

Fields of IBS expertise include:

• Plasma and ion beam treatment
• Semiconductors doping
• Ion beam equipment and services
• Microelectronics processing
• Power devices

Equipment
At its Rousset-Peynier, France and Bathgate, England sites, IBS has installed state of the art equipment in 2 clean rooms (class 10 and 100), including:

• 8 ion implanters, one of which is exclusively dedicated to R&D work
• 2 ion implanters dedicated to very low energy
• 4 thin film deposition tool and 3 plasma etch tools
• 8 high-temperature diffusion furnaces 
• Photolithography equipment
• A preparation and control line for work pieces.

As member of the Integrated Center for Microelectronic (CIM PACA), IBS benefits from leading edge tools to characterize semiconductor material, such as SIMS, Micro Auger, TEM, SEM, XPS, AFM.

R&D
Thanks to the development of PULSION Technology, IBS has evolved its business from machine renovation to implanter design and manufacturing. In addition to state of the art 300mm Pulsion systems,  IBS can also develop implanters personalized to the requirements of R&D and small-diameter ( ≤ 150 mm) customers, and offers:

• a wide range of implantable ions
• multi species / multi substrates
• heated or cooled substrates

Current IBS research is focused on two principal axes:

• Development of new ion implanters adapted to micro and nanoelectronics, nanotechnologies and mechanical industries
• Special electronic components (such as SiC, high tension equipment and sensors)

IBS is a very nimble company and is willing to work on specialized projects with companies in areas such as unique species implant, N-Type doping, and others.

Cooperative Work
IBS also benefits from the support of ARCSIS, Association for the Research on Components and Secured Integrated Systems (Association pour la Recherche sur les Composants et les Systèmes Intégrés Sécurisés). This co-operative association helps the scientific, technical and industrial communities to set up mutually beneficial projects and stimulates innovation and value-growth.
IBS regularly collaborates with numerous laboratories through bilateral agreements or national and international programs.
When IBS developed the unique techniques for plasma sourcing and electric polarization, the best European laboratories were associated with this research.
IBS currently participates in a number of major co-operative development programs, such as the FP6 SEANET and Pullnano projects (with STMicroelectronics, NXP, Infineon, LETI and IMEC). In addition, IBS has received six patents in the last five years, and was awarded the INPI Innovation Trophy 2006.
IBS specialists have co-published more than 40 papers as a result of this collaboration. For a list of selected IBS publications,
click here.