FEI SAS

Their core work

FEI SAS is a French technology SME based in Mérignac (Bordeaux area), operating as the European software R&D entity of FEI Company — the global electron microscopy manufacturer later acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Their core product is scientific 3D/4D visualization and analysis software, best known through the Amira and Avizo platforms, which are widely used by researchers and engineers to process volumetric data from electron microscopes, CT scanners, and synchrotron beamlines. In H2020 projects, they contributed as a specialist software partner — bringing production-grade imaging tools into research consortia working on advanced materials characterization and multidimensional imaging for engineering applications. Their website (vsg3d.com) reflects their origin as Visualization Sciences Group (VSG), acquired by FEI to integrate software expertise with hardware.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (3DAM, 2016), FEI SAS was engaged in applied industrial metrology — specifically 3D characterization of materials and structures for semiconductor device manufacturing — with no imaging-science keywords recorded. By their second project (MUMMERING, 2018), the focus had shifted clearly toward foundational imaging science: tomography, 4D imaging, synchrotron radiation, electron microscopy, and HPC, suggesting a broader scientific positioning beyond semiconductor-specific metrology. The trajectory points toward becoming a cross-domain imaging software platform rather than a niche metrology tool supplier.

FEI SAS is moving toward positioning its software as general-purpose scientific imaging infrastructure — serving electron microscopy, synchrotron, and CT communities simultaneously — which broadens potential collaboration into life sciences, materials research, and engineering beyond their semiconductor origins.

How they like to work

FEI SAS consistently participates as a specialist contributor rather than a project driver — they joined 3DAM as a funded participant and MUMMERING as a third party, in both cases bringing software tools rather than leading scientific agendas. This pattern suits organizations seeking a reliable technology provider with minimal coordination overhead. Their involvement in large consortia (41 partners across 13 countries from just 2 projects) suggests they are comfortable operating within complex multi-partner structures without seeking central roles.

Despite only two H2020 projects, FEI SAS has touched 41 unique consortium partners across 13 countries, reflecting participation in large, geographically distributed research networks typical of ECSEL and MSCA-ITN funding schemes. Their network is European in character, spanning industrial and academic partners in materials science and imaging research.

What sets them apart

FEI SAS is one of the very few commercial software companies in Europe that sits directly at the intersection of electron microscopy hardware (via parent FEI/Thermo Fisher) and scientific 3D data visualization software — a combination that gives them rare domain depth across instrumentation and data analysis. For consortium builders, they offer something most software SMEs cannot: a production tool (Amira/Avizo) already installed in thousands of research labs worldwide, which means validation and adoption risks are dramatically lower than with prototype software. They are most valuable in projects that need to bridge raw imaging data from large-scale instruments and actionable materials or engineering insights.

Highlights from their portfolio

• 3DAM
  Their only directly funded H2020 project (EUR 207,500), positioning them in the high-value ECSEL semiconductor metrology space alongside major European microelectronics players.
• MUMMERING
  An MSCA-ITN training network for multiscale and multimodal imaging for engineering, where FEI SAS contributed as a third-party knowledge provider — signalling their recognition as a reference software platform in the scientific imaging training community.