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To achieve its full objectives, the councillors and
executive board members of the SFV include
representatives from the three communities:
scientific research, industry (equipment manu­
facturers and users) and education (universities).
The SFV was recognised by the French govern­
ment as a Public Utility Society in March 1957.
The major historical activities of the SFV include:
• Publishing
The first activity of the SFV was to set up a
technical review journal, Le Vide. Its publi-
cation started in December 1945, only nine
months after the SFV was founded. In addition
to regular scientific papers, proceedings of the
conferences organised by the SFV were also
published in this journal. It was replaced in 2003
by a newspaper, La Gazette du Vide, which
provides twice a year recent scientific and tech-
nical information. The Society also publishes
scientific and technical books. In the year 2000,
a Web site was created ) and is regu-
larly updated.
• Conferences and Workshops
During the 1946-1954 period, the SFV orga­
nised only technical workshops but each of
these attracted about 100 to 120 attendees.
Then, in 1954, the SFV organised its first
international congress on “Oxide Coated
Cathodes” in Paris. This was followed in
1956 by an international congress on “Ultra
High Frequency Tubes” at which more than
178 papers were presented. Since that date,
about 250 conferences and congresses
have been organised by the SFV at national,
European and international levels. Workshops
and conferences are also organised in partner­
ship with other national vacuum societies.
In 1980, the SFV hosted the IUVSTA’s
8thInternational Vacuum Congress in Cannes.
In 2013, the 19thInternational Vacuum
Congress was held in Paris, co-organised for
the first time ever by a consortium of nine
European societies (from Belgium, Croatia,
Czech Republic, France, Great Britain,
Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia) coordi-
nated by the SFV.
• Education
The first Technical Course with practical
training took place in 1968. This was jointly
organised with the Technology Institute of
Orsay University. Now about thirty courses are
available each year on topics such as vacuum
production, vacuum control, leak detection,
thin films, plasmas processes, surface science
and the major types of physical analysis.
The practical training is mainly carried out
in the SFV Vacuum Laboratory for Teach-
ing located in Orsay. When required, specific
equipment located in research laboratories
can also be used. For example, a course on
techniques using the synchrotron radiation has
In 1938-39 a group of French scientists and people from industry, including the late Dr. Fernand
Holweck (deceased 1941), proposed to form a national organisation which would gather
together scientific, industrial and educational representatives for the purpose of promoting
vacuum science and techniques through education. Due to the intervention of WorldWar II this
initiative was delayed and the constitutive general assembly took place on 10thMarch 1945.
This society was established as a professional scientific society, called Société Française
des Ingénieurs et Techniciens du Vide (SFITV) or the French Society for Vacuum Engineers
and Technicians. It maintained this name until 1974 when, for the purpose of international
standardisation, the name was changed to Société Française du Vide (SFV) or the French
Vacuum Society.
THE FRENCH VACUUM SOCIETY
Société Française du Vide (SFV)
Original by Pierre Pileur (2001)
Updated by MG Barthés-Labrousse (2017)