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Ilika Technologies
and ITDev collaborate to successfully develop and
supply state of the art materials research equipment
to Belgium-based Flamac.
Southampton Science Park is home to over 50 thriving
technology businesses, each with their own focus and
expertise. With so many companies based on the same
site, the opportunities for collaboration are
significant.
ITDev is based in
Epsilon House and offers a broad range of
engineering consultancy services. The company has
built a reputation for the development of high
quality software and electronics systems to fixed
prices and timescales. In particular, ITDev has a
wealth of experience in measurement and control
systems, both on embedded and PC-based platforms.
Ilika Technologies is
a University of Southampton spin-out company based
in the recently completed Kenneth Dibben House. They
specialise in the development and application of
high throughput, combinatorial R&D techniques for
the accelerated discovery of new materials. In
particular, Ilika has the capability to create, as
well as characterise, vast numbers of inorganic
materials deposited using either physical vapour
deposition or chemical vapour deposition (CVD)
techniques as well as the capability to generate and
screen thousands of biocompatible polymers.
When Flamac
approached Ilika to develop a bespoke
high-throughput CVD machine, Ilika took the decision
to outsource the software development, enabling them
to remain focused on their core business. Following
a recommendation from another Science Park-based
company, Ilika contacted ITDev.
The required software
was responsible for bringing together the 33
separate computer-controlled devices that control
and monitor the system. The machine had to perform
automated depositions to a precise recipe that was
passed to it from a master database at Flamac.
Detailed setup and results data was then passed back
to the database to ensure repeatability and
traceability.
The actual sequence
of actions that performs the deposition had to be
fully programmable to allow the system to be
optimised for the best possible performance. ITDev
provided an easy to use interface allowing Ilika's
CVD experts to define the machine's behaviour. The
delivered software also included a simulation mode,
allowing the deposition sequence to be developed and
tested without the need for the machine hardware.
This also greatly reduced the risk of sequence
errors causing damage to the real machine.
At every stage of the
project, the software development kept pace with the
development of the machine hardware and close
cooperation between staff from Ilika and ITDev
ensured that integration testing was highly
successful. The completed system has been installed
at Flamac's labs in Gent, Belgium since May.
www.itdev.co.uk
www.ilika.com
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