Commercial development of a variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer

To meet the needs in materials research and development, including needs in space materials applications, an automated, highly precise, variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (VASE®) was developed. The original instrument development took place at the University of Nebraska and was supported partially by grants for materials research from the NASA Lewis Research Center. The J. A. Woollam Co., Inc., was founded in 1987 as a University spin‐off of this effort and has grown to a level of $4 million in annual worldwide sales. NASA has supported development of VASE® and its space applications via SBIR contracts to the J. A. Woollam Company. This paper presents both the commercialization aspects and gives a brief tutorial description of the instrument and its uses.