July 20, 2009: FEI Corp. has unveiled a new scanning/transmission electron microscope (S/TEM) that it says “dramatically increases productivity” for analysis work in applications such as semiconductor manufacturing and materials analysis.

The Tecnai Osiris 200kV tool includes the company’s new ChemiSTEM echnology that combines a X-FEG high-brightness electron source and a new “Super-X” energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) signal detection system based on “silicon drift detector” technology, to make EDX elemental mapping faster by a factor of 50×, and reduce the time for large field-of-view elemental mapping from hours to minutes. A new “SmartCam” remote control interface offers remote guidance in multiuser or industrial facilities. MultiLoader sample handling reduces thermal equilibration time after sample exchanges by 10× with “commensurate improvements in time-to-data,” and a new FS-1 electron energy loss spectrometer improves electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS) speed and sensitivity.

“The continuing decrease in device sizes and proliferation of new materials in semiconductor manufacturing, and the appearance of more samples with unknown composition in multi-user research facilities, drives the need for an S/TEM providing the ease-of-use of EDX analytics with an elemental mapping speed comparable to STEM imaging,” said Tony Edwards, FEI’s SVP of market divisions, in a statement.

FEI’s Tecnai Osiris. (Source:FEI)