Hillsboro, Ore. and Ithaca, NY — FEI (NASDAQ: FEIC) and Cornell University have entered an agreement to commercialize a new high dynamic range detector for FEI’s electron microscopes. It promises to enable new kinds of multichannel imaging and analysis that have not been possible previously. FEI expects to complete the commercialization of the design and offer the detector for new and upgraded electron microscopes in 2017.

Uniquely, the electron microscope pixel array detector (EMPAD) simultaneously captures the spatially and angularly-resolved distribution of all transmitted electrons, allowing researchers to acquire and post-process a complete data array of scattering information to generate images and analytical results in scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) applications. Atomic resolution image contrast enhancement methods, such as iDPC, electric and magnetic field visualizations, and strain measurement techniques, will benefit from the unmatched performance of the new detector.