31 March 2008  RTA celebrates 3 k-Space awards in a row! It is only four years since RTA Instruments Ltd became the exclusive European representative for k-Space Associates, Inc. Now, for third time in successive years we have won their Representative of the Year award. k-Space Sales and Marketing Manager, Eric Friedman comments, “RTA’s sales success stems directly from the excellent support provided for the k-Space product lines. With their strong technical and applications expertise they have been able to provide convincing demonstrations and efficient installations of our products. We have also found RTA’s expertise invaluable in supporting our new product developments. We are looking forward to RTA’s continuing success in 2008 and beyond.”

05 March 2008  RTA Instruments expands in surface analysis - We are delighted to announce that we are now working with the world leading instrumentation company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (www.thermo.com), to represent their surface analysis systems and component product lines in the UK and Ireland. RTA Instruments Managing Director Richard Thomson said, “It is at least ten years since a number of us worked with the former VG Scientific. In that period Thermo have made very significant investments in new product developments at the East Grinstead factory. The K-Alpha and Theta Probe products have broken new ground for surface analysis instrumentation and we look forward to presenting these products to our customers, both old and new”.

31 December 2007  RTA Instruments Consultancy Group caps a very successful year - 2007 was a year of growth for RTA Instruments, with Carl Richardson now providing technical and product support for both existing and new product lines and we have also expanded our Consultancy services with input from David Williams. We completed an important Commercial Opportunity Analysis project in December which received praise from the client for the impressive quality of the work we undertook.

05 September 2007  RTA for RTA - RTA Instruments has teamed up with UniTemp GmbH (www.unitemp.de), specialist manufacturer in thermal processing equipment including Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) systems. Based near Munich, the UniTemp business is built on more than 15 years’ experience in developing and producing R&D equipment. RTA will promote and support the UniTemp product lines in the UK and Ireland.

03 September 2007  PLD Workstation installed in Leeds. We are pleased to have successfully installed a PLD2000 system at The University of Leeds, Institute for Materials Research. This system will be used in a broad range of materials applications and will considerably enhance the facilities available for materials research. PVD engineer Adam Shepard worked with RTA's Dr Carl Richardson to complete the installation and training.

05 June 2007  Stay cool with RTA - RTA Instruments Ltd is pleased to announce a marketing agreement with Applied Thermal Control Ltd (www.app-therm.com) who bring an innovative approach to the thermal management sector and provide the highest quality constant temperature equipment possible. They work with end-users and manufacturers to supply re-circulation chillers, water-water heat exchangers and air blast coolers designed to optimise performance and reliability. ATC chillers are well established in the scientific instrument markets (electron microscopes, X-ray diffraction, ICPMS etc) and semiconductor process markets worldwide.

01 May 2007  Frost free cryogen delivery - RTA Instruments Ltd is pleased to announce a marketing agreement with Peco Controls - Europe Ltd (www.peco-europe.com) who specialize in the supply of fully vacuum insulated, frost free liquid nitrogen piping systems, hoses and accessories. RTA will work with Peco-Europe in the specialist markets of semiconductor and synchrotron research.

14 April 2007  RTA moves into synchrotron radiation market where our customers are the beamline scientists and users at the synchrotrons in Europe and the USA together with equipment suppliers to that market. The first manufacturing partner for this market is Crystal Scientific (UK) Ltd, whose x-ray diffraction and reflexion products find many applications in synchrotron radiation beamlines.

01 April 2007  RTA publications in print - RTA Instruments is always keen to work with our customers on specific applications of our products. The following recent publications stem from research carried out with some of our kSA BandiT customers on substrate temperature measurement. Evaluation of sapphire substrate heating behaviour using GaN band-gap thermometry J J Harris, R Thomson, C Taylor, D Barlett, R P Campion, V A Grant, C T Foxon and M J Kappers J Cryst Growth 300, 194 – 198 (2007) Use of bandgap thermometry to investigate the growth of GaN on sapphire and GaAs. C T Foxon, R P Campion, V A Grant, S V Novikov, J J Harris, R Thomson, C Taylor, D Barlett J Cryst Growth 301/302, 482 – 485 (2007) Substrate temperature measurement using a commercial band-edge detection system I Farrer, J J Harris, R Thomson, D Barlett, C A Taylor and D A Ritchie, J Cryst Growth 301/302, 88 – 92 (2007)

15 January 2007  RTA has once again been recognized by k-Space Associates, Inc. as their Representative of the Year. "We are delighted with RTA's very significant increase in sales in 2006, particularly with the kSA BandiT temperature sensor and kSA MOS stress monitoring system”, commented Eric Friedman, k-Space Sales & Marketing Director. “By having such a close connection with the Industrial R&D and University materials research community, RTA Instruments has become a very important strategic partner in helping incorporate EU customer requirements directly into new k-Space product development." All at RTA would like to thank our customers for their support and we are working to ensure that continues in the future.

20 December 2006  The University of Leeds placed an order for a pulsed laser deposition system, to be manufactured by PVD Products, Inc. The system will incorporate a Coherent Libra femto-second laser in addition to a Lambda Physik COMPex 102 excimer laser. We are excited to be involved with the latest technique and materials developments planned for this system in the Institute of Materials.

30 May 2006  RTA wins another European order for a magnetron sputter deposition system to be manufactured by PVD Products, Inc. The system has been ordered by the Nanometallurgy Group at ETH Zürich, both RTA and PVD are delighted to have such a prestigious customer for their products. In addition to the deposition system, an order was received for the kSA MOS in-situ curvature measurement system. This will make it possible to undertake very high resolution thin film stress studies.

01 April 2006  Richard Thomson Associates incorporates as RTA Instruments Ltd. Following our growth in the instrumentation market over the last 3 years, the business has now been incorporated as a limited liability company, RTA Instruments Ltd. The new name better reflects the activities of our business. We will maintain our consultancy service previously offered by Richard Thomson Associates, but this is now a much smaller part of our portfolio than the instruments business. Together with our principals, ADDON Creative Epitaxie, EpiMax Ltd, k-Space Associates, Inc. and PVD Products, Inc RTA Instruments Ltd is anticipating continued growth and stability of the business.

28 March 2006  RTA wins the first European system order for PVD Products, Inc. Loughborough University, Department of Physics has purchased a magnetron sputtering system which will be used for a variety of applications supporting multiple users within the University.

15 January 2006  RTA was recognised as 2005 Representative of the Year by k-Space Associates, Inc. "We are delighted with RTA's increased sales in 2005, particularly with many of the newly released k-Space products”, commented Eric Friedman, k-Space Sales & Marketing Director. “By having such a strong technical team on board, RTA has become a very important strategic partner while working directly with EU customers to ensure k-Space products meet customer requirements." At RTA we will continue to focus on our customers and provide product solutions that meet their requirements.

25 February 2005  We announced our European representation of PVD Products, Inc. whose expertise in pulsed laser deposition systems is well known but who deserve increased exposure in Europe. Their products have an excellent fit with RTA’s expertise and customer base.

30 April 2004  We finalised a sales agreement covering all of Europe to represent k-Space Associates, Inc. Well known in the epitaxy market for their world-leading kSA 400 RHEED package, but k-Space have other products equally deserving of promotion. In 2004 we introduced the band edge temperature measurement system, kSA BandiT and promoted it in Europe through a series of successful demonstrations.

20 December 2003  To further support our customers, we established a sales agreement with EpiMax Ltd, whose deposition control software EpiSoft and related products are well known in the MBE community. EpiSoft already had a large user base in Europe but we have added a number of customers including Lancaster University, the University of Leeds additional systems at QinetiQ plc and Technischen Universität zu Braunschweig.

26 March 2003  We signed an exclusive UK agency agreement with ADDON Créative Epitaxie Equipement SA, the world-leading MBE components company. We saw clear opportunities in the current MBE marketplace for the ADDON products and were confident in expanding their business in the UK. ADDON products have now been delivered to a number of laboratories in the UK, including Heriot-Watt University, Imperial College London, The University of Liverpool, The University of Nottingham, QinetiQ plc and Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd.