  The ever increasing need for product advancement and miniaturization keeps
thin film assemblies, membranes, magnetic and non-magnetic multilayer and
patterned heterostructures in the limelight of material science and
technological development. A number of thin film and surface characterization
methods have emerged recently to meet the new challenges. The increased
interest in magnetic thin film analytical instruments - mainly triggered by the
discovery of the giant magnetoresistance and related phenomena1 - resulted in a
boom of PNR studies as well as of the construction of a number of new neutron
reflectometers with polarization option at neutron sources all over the world.
Here we report on the design, construction and operation parameters and first
example uses of the "Grazing Incidence Neutron Apparatus" (GINA) a recently
installed neutron reflectometer at the Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC), Hungary.
