Company Announcements

DENSsolutions named Angstrom Scientific its distributor for North America.

FEI announced in June a research collaboration agreement with the University of Oklahoma to establish an oil and gas center of excellence, which will focus on the development of routine quantitative methods to classify shales in the economic assessment of tight oil and gas plays.

In August, FEI agreed to purchase nanoTechnology Systems, its 15-employee Australian distributor.

Pemtron named Nanounity a distributor for its Pemtron compact scanning electron microscopes (SEMs).

Product Introductions

Olympus launched the LEXT OLS4100 laser confocal microscope, featuring auto brightness and a new high speed stitching mode.

FEI introduced in June the Helios NanoLab 1200 AT full-wafer DualBeam analysis system, which features the optional automated front opening universal pod, allowing location inside a semiconductor wafer fab.

In July, FEI released the Scios DualBeam focus ion beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) system for fast 2-D and 3-D characterization, featuring the new Trinity detector suite, and the Helios NanoLab 660 DualBeam, with capabilities for specialized applications, such as the fabrication of prototypes for nanometer-scale devices.

Oxford Instruments launched the OmniGIS II Multiple Gas Delivery System, a single-port injection system for SEM or FIB systems, featuring vent-free auto-ID cartridges and pressure feedback control.

Park Systems released in June the affordable, research-grade Park XE7 atomic force microscope (AFM), which allows researchers to obtain the flat and orthogonal XY scan of up to 100 µm x 100 µm.

Park Systems introduced in July the Park NX-HDM fully automated automatic defect review and sub-angstrom surface roughness AFM for device substrates and disk media.

Agilent Technologies announced in June the availability of scanning microwave microscopy capabilities for its 5500 AFM.

In July, TESCAN launched the MAIA field emission SEM, which excels at low-voltage observation and related analysis, and is manufactured in configurations with LM, XM and GM chambers.

Sales/Orders of Note

Leica Microsystems announced in May the sale of its 100th TCS SPX confocal laser scanning microscope with a white light laser to the Department of Biology at New York University.

In June, Protochips shipped its 100th system, a Double Tilt Aduro 300, for in situ electron microscopy.