Since October 2019, public funding from the Sächsische Aufbaubank - Förderbank - SAB has supported the construction of a diagnostic platform for the characterization of reactive ion beam processes with more than one million euros, thus also investing in the further development of the IOM's infrastructure. This year, a unique apparatus (height: 3.8 m, weight: 8.5 tons) could now be installed and put into operation in the Application Center of the IOM. The aim of the two IOM working groups "Ion Beam Assisted Patterning and Smoothing" and "Tools" is now, on the one hand, to use this facility to advance R&D work in the direction of developing and optimizing process-adapted broad-beam ion sources for new applications and, at the same time, to create the basis for transferring the expected technological results to industrial use. The IOM already has more than 40 years of experience in this field of technology, also in cooperation with partners from research and industry. With the new diagnostic platform, the research field at the IOM will be sustainably secured and the unique position in the field of development as well as application of broad beam ion sources for reactive ion beam etching processes will be further expanded.

The grant was provided from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and from tax revenues on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament.