Jeol Introduce Electron Probe Microanalyzer with Thermal Field Emission Electron Gun

JEOL, a leading manufacturer of electron microscopes for over fifty years, has introduced an advanced electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) with a thermal field emission electron gun designed specifically for high resolution, low-accelerating-voltage microanalysis and ultra-high resolution imaging of solid materials. A fully automated, high-throughput, versatile microprobe, the JXA-8500F can simultaneously utilize up to five wavelength dispersive x-ray spectrometers (WDS) and an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (EDS) for combined quantitative and qualitative element analysis of submicron sample areas.

The JXA-8500F is the only EPMA with a Schottky-type field emission gun, which produces a pinpoint probe diameter one-half to one-tenth the size of conventional probes -- as small as 40nm (10nA and 10kV). The JXA-8500F operates at low accelerating voltages of 1 to 30 kV over a wide range of probe currents, from 10pA to 500nA, with excellent probe stability. The ability to achieve high probe currents and small probe diameters, especially at low accelerating voltages, makes the EPMA well suited for high-precision elemental analysis of extremely small analytical volumes. The X-ray analyzer uses high sensitivity analyzing crystals to rapidly produce element maps showing the distribution and concentration of multiple elements within a sample. Most of the periodic table can be analyzed, from Be to U. The analytical sensitivity range is as low as 10ppm.

“The outstanding analytical ability of this instrument to produce very small spot sizes at high current and low kV will allow the user to measure submicron features and map with an analytical resolution approaching 100nm,” says Charles Nielsen, vice president of JEOL USA, Inc. “Microprobers can now image, analyze and map features they could not even see in previous microprobes. We also believe the science of particle analysis will be advanced with the JXA-8500F’s new column.” Applications for the JXA-8500F include analysis of MR heads for the semiconductor industry, mapping impurities in cross-sections of steel, geological, mineralogical, petrological, and volcanological research.

JEOL developed its first commercial EPMA in 1961. The JXA-8500F is a field-emission version of JEOL’s popular eighth generation of microprobes, which includes the JXA-8100/8200.

Posted August 30^th, 2004