Although there have been benchtop electron microscope products on the market for some time, the modern resurgence of benchtop electron microscopy began in 2005 with the release of Hitachi High-Technologies’ TM-1000. The TM-1000 is a scanning electron microscope providing magnification power of up to 10,000X, which is roughly an order of magnitude greater than can be achieved with a standard optical microscope system.

Rather than directly using light to image the sample, electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to probe the surface. Detectors and software convert the pattern of scattered electrons into an image. While standard light microscopes cannot resolve features smaller than a typical wavelength of visible light—a few hundred nanometers—electron microscopes can easily resolve smaller features by accelerating electrons to energies corresponding to smaller wavelengths. Full-size electron microscopes may offer a maximum magnification that exceeds that of optical microscopes by a factor of more than one thousand, but the benchtop systems considered here tend to have more modest performance parameters. Thus, the benchtop or desktop electron microscope occupies a niche between optical microscopy and full-featured electron microscopy, both in terms of magnification and price.

Benchtop systems are generally designed to be extremely easy to use. This is because a primary target market is optical microscopists who have no training or experience with electron microscopy. Even electron microscopy experts have found use for these relatively low-end systems. Due to the difference in vacuum requirements, it generally takes far less time to obtain an image with a benchtop system, so they may be used for exploratory analysis alongside a more powerful electron microscope. Starting in 2010, second-generation systems have been introduced by Hitachi and Phenom-World. These systems have even greater functionality. Common sample types include electronic components, materials, textiles, fibers, biological materials and forensic evidence.

Hitachi remains the overall leader in the benchtop electron microscopy market, having sold more than 1,000 of the original TM-1000 since its debut, along with hundreds of the second-generation TM-3000. In second place is Phenom-World, a joint venture formed in October 2009 to market the Phenom microscope originally branded as an FEI product (see IBO 11/15/09). The company’s current partners include FEI, NTS Group (which handles the production of the Phenom) and Sioux Embedded Systems.

The third major manufacturer of benchtop electron microscopes is JEOL. Its NeoScope is primarily marketed by Nikon, an important player in the optical microscopy market. A few smaller vendors also exist, such as DeLong, Evex and Novelx, the last of which was acquired by Agilent in January 2010. In total, the 2010 market demand for benchtop electron microscopy was about $40 million.

Benchtop Electron Microscopes at a Glance:

Leading Suppliers

• Hitachi High-Technologies

• Phenom-World

• JEOL

Largest Markets

• Academia

• Electronics

• Forensics

Instrument Cost

• $40,000–$125,000