Company Announcements

ZEISS announced in June a public-private partnership with the University of California at Berkeley as part of the Brain Microscopy Innovation Center.

In July, Nikon Instruments opened a Center of Excellence within the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.

Leica Microsystems named Markus Lusser as president and director in July. Previously, he was vice president, Global Sales and Customer Support, at SCIEX.

Product Introductions

In June, FEI introduced the Helios PFIB (plasma focused ion beam) EFI (electrical fault isolation) system for sample preparation, EFI and electrical failure analysis on sub-20 nm semiconductor devices.

SCIENION launched the sciTEM for depositing multiple different samples onto a single SEM/TEM support.

Keysight Technologies introduced the 9500 AFM system, featuring scan rates of up to 2 sec/frame (256 x 256 pixels). The Quick Scan option is controlled through the new NanoNavigator imaging and analysis software.

Bruker launched the second-generation Inspire IR nanocharacterization system, utilizing AFM and scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy. It features 10 nm spatial resolution IR chemical mapping.

In July, Bruker released the OPTIMUS TKD detector head for transmission Kikuchi diffraction in SEM, featuring a horizontal phosphor screen that can be placed directly beneath electron-transparent samples.

JPK Instruments introduced the NanoWizard 4 BioScience AFM, its fourth generation NanoWizard system. It features scanning up to 70 Hz line rate, and is designed for integration with advanced optical methods and superresolution optics.

Oxford Instruments released the GetStarted feature for its Asylum Research AFMs, which guides users through initial setup and automatically calculating optimal imaging parameters.

In July, ZEISS introduced the LabDCT, calling in the first lab-based diffraction contrast tomography system for 3-D grain imaging. It nondestructively obtains 3-D crystallographic information from polycrystalline samples.

In August, ZEISS released the Atlas 5 hardware and software package for SEM and FIB-SEM. It streamlines automatic image acquisition, and allows efficient navigation and correlation of images from any source.

Hitachi High-Technologies introduced the NX9000, a real-time 3-D analytical FIB-SEM composite instrument for 3-D structural analysis. The SEM column and FIB column are arranged orthogonally rather than diagonally for more stable collection of images.

JEOL released the JCM-6000 Plus NeoScope benchtop SEM, featuring improved imaging quality of backscattered electron images. First year unit sales are expected to be 200.