Electron Microscope

SCOPE OF WORK FOR ACQUISITION OF FIELD EMISSION SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE (FE-SEM) WITH ANNULAR ENERGY DISPERSIVE X-RAY SPECTROSCOPIC (EDS) DETECTOR The requested instrument is a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) with an annular energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector. The field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) electron source must be a cold field emission type, consisting of a single W310 crystal, computer-controlled flashing (including periodic mild flashing that can be set by the operator), and operator selectable emission current levels. The SEM should be able to operate for 12 hours without a hard flash. The ultra-high vacuum in the cathode area must be capable of being periodically regenerated via an "inner anode" bake-out heater in addition to the typical external column baking capability, and this vacuum regeneration operation must be simple and safe enough to be performed by the SEM operator, without assistance from a certified Field Service Engineer. The guaranteed secondary electron image resolution of the instrument must be 0.8nm or better at 15kV and 1.1nm or better at 1kV. A magnification range from 20x to at least 1,000,000x is required. The accelerating voltage range must be from 10Volts to 30kV in 10V, 100V and 1000V steps. The SEM shall include operator-selectable emission current levels of 1-30'A without loss of resolution or manipulation of aperture settings. The SEM must include a high probe current mode that increases beam current levels to the sample without significant loss of resolution or manipulation of aperture settings for high current techniques such as EDS and BSE. The SEM should be able to achieve a specimen current level of ~40nA. The SEM shall also include an operational mode for imaging magnetic materials. The SEM must include a total of three Secondary Electron Detectors; a chamber mounted Lower SE detector, a TTL Upper SE detector, and a Top SE detector. Signal mixing of all 3 SE detectors must also be possible. These three Secondary Electron detectors must provide the ability to filter and mix various components of SE, High Angle (HA) Backscattered Electrons (BSE), and Low Angle (LA) Backscattered Electrons (BSE), via an EXB filter design without any realignment of the electron beam. In addition, the upper detectors shall be useable at any/all working distances. A "5-segment" retractable Solid-State BSED shall be included as standard. A "heated" 5-position (4 selections plus open) variable objective aperture assembly must be standard and selectable/adjustable from outside of the vacuum. This should be a click-stop design rather than the older micrometer style. Image shift of the beam must be no less than +/-12um at a working distance of 8mm and +/-18um at a working distance of 12mm. The SEM must be capable of up to -3.5kV "beam deceleration". The SEM should include AUTO functions for Focus, Stigmation, Brightness/Contrast but should also include an "AUTO-startup" mode that performs all the above and presents the operator with an image after sample insertion and execution of the auto-startup mode. In order to provide flexibility and adaptability for potential additional analytical tasks, the SEM shall offer options for an annular type high-pass filter for selectable imaging signal based on electron energies to assist with the generation of enhanced materials contrast, a transmission electron detector, bright field aperture and dark field holders, and an Infrared Chamber Scope. The SEM shall be able to achieve the following vacuum conditions; Electron Gun = <2 - 10-8 Pa and Specimen chamber = <1 - 10-4 Pa. The instrument must come standard with a completely dry vacuum system including a magnetically suspended turbo-molecular pump and a scroll pump for reduced specimen contamination and ultra-high resolution applications. The column vacuum should include three (3) differentially isolated ion pumps for the FE gun, gun anode and condenser lens. The column shall include a NEG (Non-Evaporative Getter) pump for achieving a very high vacuum thus ensuring improved electron gun cleanliness and stability. The SEM shall be able to achieve a probe current deviation of <0.8% per hour for approximately a 12 hour period thus providing a high stability beam for longer-term imaging and analytical work. The SEM shall incorporate a contamination resistant specimen chamber via a specially processed inner chamber wall for reducing contamination adsorption and thus helping to maintain a cleaner chamber vacuum requiring less maintenance. The SEM shall include a specimen exchange chamber for inserting/removing up to 100mm specimens into/from the SEM chamber without the need to open the entire SEM chamber. This specimen exchange chamber shall be able to exchange a specimen in ~30 seconds, and also be designed to accommodate air protection holder or plasma cleaner options. The vacuum system shall include pneumatic valves and an air compressor and also have built-in provisions for failsafe protection against loss of power. A stationary anti-contamination trap must be provided as standard equipment on the instrument so that retraction and insertion of the trap is not required. The minimum working distance shall not be restricted while the anti-contamination trap is in operation. This anti-contamination trap provides extended imaging of specimens at higher magnifications by reducing the redeposition of hydrocarbons onto the specimen surface. The power consumption rating should be no more than 4kVA, and the instrument must consume no more than 1.7kVA under normal observation conditions. An ECO mode must be provided so the instrument can be placed in stand-by mode for extended periods (ie: holidays, vacation) and automatically return to operation at a designated time without the operator's presence, including tip conditioning. This "ECO-Mode" should use no more than 0.3kVA power consumption. This ECO mode shall also allow for unattended, automatic, pre-set flashing of the tip on a daily basis. The SEM shall also include an air-cooled water recirculator. The cooled water requirements for the lenses must be no more than 1.5 L/minute to minimize energy resources. The high angle take-off port for EDS must focus the detector at an angle of 30 with an analytical working distance of 15mm and position the detector in the plane of sample tilt so that any specimen can be optimized for analysis by adjustment of the SEM stage tilt axis toward or away from the EDS detector. This geometry is essential in taking advantage of the latest SDD EDS detectors, which typically utilize larger diameter detecting surfaces. Integration of other PC-based equipment must be possible utilizing the same mouse and keyboard for these systems and the SEM control, but without sharing computer hardware other than input devices. This will facilitate an unrestricted upgrade path to both software and hardware advances for either the SEM or auxiliary PC systems without the potential for any software conflicts. The SEM must employ Windows 7 OS and an easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI) as the control interface to all functions through keyboard and mouse input. The SEM control PC shall be a minimum of 32-bit and include a 24" LCD monitor. The SEM shall as standard provide a console of knobs which allow immediate access to the more frequently used parameters (ie: magnification, focus, brightness/contrast, astigmatism correction, etc). The SEM image display must be at least 1280 x 960 pixel resolution. SEM images should be able to be saved at a resolution of up to 5120 x 3840. The instrument must be capable of displaying four live images simultaneously such that both SE and BSE (or SE and TE) images can be collected simultaneously. This promotes ease of use as one signal type may provide easier focus and astigmatism correction response, while another may show interesting details of the specimen. Images to be saved must be transferred to the data archiving system with a single mouse click for easy storage and retrieval. The image archiving system must be "integrated" into the SEM graphical user interface so that image transfer is seamless. The microscope conditions at the time of image collection shall also be stored with the images. Whether the instrument is in secondary electron imaging mode or backscattered electron imaging mode, there must be no restriction in the use of basic operating parameters such as selectable magnification or accelerating voltage ranges (ie: the same range of magnification must be selectable, regardless of signal collection). Imaging conditions must be able to be stored with a corresponding image and must provide automatic recall of any set of operational parameters such as accelerating voltage, lens conditions, alignments, photo conditions, etc. The microscope must incorporate as standard a high-resolution frame memory system of at least 5120 x 3840 pixel resolution for frozen images. This will allow for post-image processing, zooming, photography, and subsequent enlargement of micrographs without the low resolution "pixelation" effect common to systems with 1024 or lower resolution frame memories. A "Charge Suppression" scan mode for eliminating or reducing charging artifacts must be included as standard. An integrated image management/relational database software module must be included that allows for the digital capture, processing, storage and archiving of all images and associated information either locally on the SEM computer or through any industry-standard network interface or removable media format. A site license for the use of viewer software should be standard and enable browsing and manipulation of data from any PC that shares a common access network to the location where data is stored. It should also allow the Import/Export of electronic documents: EDS spectra, X-ray maps, MS Excel files, *.BMP, *.CUT, *.EPS,*.GIF,*.IFF, *.JPG,*.PICT, *.PCD, *.XPM, *.PCX, *.PSD,*.RAS, *.TIG, *.TGA,*.TIFF, *.WMF, *.WPG, and *.XBM, PSD, EPS, Sun Raster, WPG, Xbitmap, and Adobe PDF. It should also provide the ability to measure; angle, area, and point-to-point on SEM images. It should allow output of all results in spread sheet format and provide image processing capability including smoothing, sharpening, Gamma, local contrast and the creation of anaglyph stereo images. Software must include a single keyboard/mouse function that allows the control of two computers and monitors. The SEM stage must have 5-Axis Computer Automated Motorization with tilt and rotation eucentricity, a trackball or joystick, and the following stage traverse parameters at a minimum; X = 50mm, Y = 50mm, T = -5 to 70, 1.5mm to 30mm, and R = 360 continuous. The SEM stage software shall include the ability to capture/import optical images and use them to traverse the specimen to image various locations via the simple click of a mouse or selection of a specific area of interest. The SEM should also include a "Rapid Image Shift Mode" feature for easily choosing locations on a live image whereby the SEM stage then moves to these locations with the click of a mouse. The annular energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector must be a Liquid nitrogen-free, Peltier cooled, annular, four-channel silicon drift detector (SDD) inserted between SEM pole piece and sample capable of detecting elements down to and including boron and up to and including americium with an energy resolution of 133 eV at Mn Ka or better with a maximum input count rate greater than 2,000,000 counts per second (cps). The four-channel SDD must have an active area of 60 mm2 consisting of four independent 15 mm2 SDD chips arranged annularly around the SEM pole piece to achieve an extremely high solid angle of up to 1.2 steradian at 3mm from the detector. The detector must be precisely positioned in X, Y and Z direction to center beam in hole and adjust working distance. The detector must be equipped with special filter foils to absorb the backscattered electrons while allowing X-rays to pass to the detector. The Pulse Processor must have four independent parallel pulse processing channels for each of the four detector chips. A secondary EDS detector must be included for surveying samples to determine analysis locations.