SOPRALAB has gained extensive know-how through close and continuous relationships with Applied Research Laboratories and Universities and owes its leadership position in instrumentation and production metrology equipment for industry to a proven ability to meet customers' needs.

SOPRA was founded in 1948 as a small business to manufacture devices for the automotive and railroad industries. In 1957 SOPRA(SOciété de PRoduction et de Recherches Appliquées – Trans. Corporation for Applied Research and Manufacturing) focused on optically-based instrumentation, with the introduction of Michelson and Fabry Perot interferometers. From this time, the company's product line expanded to include monochromators, spectrometers and lasers.

ANALYTICAL SYSTEMS

1983
First Scanning Spectroscopic Ellipsometer

1986
DMDP 2000 for Brillouin & Raman spectroscopy

1987
First SE with Optical fibers (Patented)

1988
Multichannel Spectroscopic Ellipsometers

1991
FTIR-SE (Fourrier Transform Infra-Red SE)

1993 GESP5 with Deep UV option allowing measurement down to 192 nm
Automatic tool for large FPD with AGV and SECSII communication

1997
SE 300 - Spectroscopic Ellipsometer for on-line quality control and process development of wafers up to 300 mm
RTSE – Real Time S.E. for in-situ process control

1998
GESP5 combining UV-Vis S.E. with Grazing X Ray / X Ray Diffraction
SE-FPD 3rd generation and above for TFT-LCD manufacturing

1999
SE-5 automated system for monitor wafers (up to 12") or small FPDs
GESP5 combining UV-Vis SE and FTIR-SE
First Purged UV-SE system measuring down to 150 nm
SE-PDP for very large plasma displays process control

2000
EUV reflectomer (3-20 nm) for development of coating

2001
First Purged UV (150nm) platform combined with GXR (Grazing X-Ray Reflectomer)

2002
Metrology platform for SE-FPD Generation 6 with: UV-VIS SE, IMSE, Contact angle (CA), Stress, Four Point Probes

2004
First Ellipsometric Porosimeter (EP) under IMEC Licence

2005
First Generation 7 SE-FPD with compact movable UV-VIS-SE head.

2006
First Generation of SE-FPD with compact movable IRSE head.


LASER SOURCES & SYSTEMS

1974
Pulsed nitrogen and tunable dye lasers for spectroscopy

1981
CARS Coherent Antistokes Raman Scattering system for combustion analysis
1250 E UV preionized excimer laser

1989
SEL – Switchless Excimer Laser

1990
TFD – Thermal Flash Diffusivimeter

1992
VEL – Very High Energy Excimer Laser, first 1KW Excimer laser in the world

1996
SAELC – Single Area Excimer Laser
Crystallisation system for LTPS of TFT of AMLCD’s
NLO – Non Linear Optical Spectrometer

1998
15 J @ 1Hz, R&D Annealer

2001
VEL12J @ 20Hz, annealer for mass production

2005
LTA 15J @ 3Hz, Laser Thermal annealer for Bipolar IGBT activation.


SOPRALAB Award’s

1978
Galitzine Awards, Physics Arts from SEIN Society / Paris

1981
Great First Award of City of Paris to Mr Pierre STEHLE to recognize his contribution for Research and Teaching.

1985
Bourdon Medal of SEIN / Paris to Mr Jean-Louis STEHLE for Spectroscopic Ellipsometry

1995
Branly Award from SEIN / Paris to Marc STEHLE and Dr Bruno GODARD fro the 1st 1KW excimer laser in the world.

1996
Yves ROCARD Innovation Award from French Physical Society.
SOPRA contributed by its instrumentation to physics experiments which are related to several Nobel Price Awards.