k-Space Associates, Inc. was founded in 1992 by Roy Clarke and Darryl Barlett from the University of Michigan.

The companys initial product was the kSA 400 system for the real time capture and analysis of RHEED patterns. The goal of the kSA 400 system, now in its 4th generation, is to seamlessly provide you with the most information from your RHEED pattern. Whether you are analyzing a static diffraction pattern, or acquiring data during high-speed substrate rotation, results are immediately at your fingertips. The kSA 400 has been developed for both static as well as real-time acquisition and analysis. Determination of lattice spacing, strain evolution, growth rate, thickness, coherence lengths, and reconstruction evolution are just a mouse click away. The system is flexible, allowing you to analyze virtually any image feature you desire, or optionally, program your own custom analysis routines.

The kSA Multi-beam Optical Sensor (MOS) is a thin film stress, wafer curvature, and thickness monitor with integrated real-time feedback for process control. This system is highly sensitive, in-situ or ex-situ, laser based, and extremely robust. kSA MOS measures thin film stress by monitoring substrate curvature with an array of parallel laser beams and a CCD area detector. Optimized optics and detection system combined with proven fitting algorithms result in typical radius of curvature detection of 4 to 10 kilometers, depending on system geometry. Since the technique is optically based, it is compatible with CVD, sputtering, and MBE environments provided that optical access is available to the substrate. The variants kSA MOS Ultra-Scan and kSA MOS Thermal-Scan provide specific solutions for high resolution ex-situ stress measurement.

The kSA RateRat Pro is a deposition rate monitor and advanced process control system. This non-invasive, in-situ, optically based product makes thin-film deposition monitoring simple. By combining real-time calculations of deposition rate, layer thickness and optical constants with powerful advanced process control software, RateRat Pro makes monitoring even the most complex multi-layered materials easy and precise.

The kSA BandiT is a non-contact, non-invasive, real-time wafer temperature sensor. The system utilizes the temperature-dependent optical absorption edge of semiconductor materials. kSA BandiT provides a viable solution for lowtemperature wafer monitoring where pyrometers cannot measure. It is also insensitive to changing view port transmission, stray light sources, and signal contribution from substrate heaters. RTA Instruments Ltd has demonstrated this system in over 25 laboratories in Europe. We are pleased to have many customers now using the system routinely.