Company Announcements

Hitachi announced the development of an atomic-resolution holography electron microscope as part of the Japanese government’s FIRST Program. Hitachi called it the first installation of a spherical-aberration corrector in an ultrahigh-voltage electron microscope. It has a resolution of 43 pm.

In April, US-based Nanoscience Instruments began selling Concept Scientific Instrument’s Nano-Observer AFM system.

Zeiss first-half fiscal 2015 Microscopy sales ending March 31 grew 9%, 3% on a like-for-like basis, to €343 million ($404 million) to make up 16% of total revenues.

In May, FEI and Weatherford Laboratories entered into a joint agreement to offer advanced reservoir characterization services to the oil and gas industry. The companies will create new workflows integrating their offerings.

Product Introductions

Physical Electronics introduced the nanoTOF II TOF-SIMS system in late 2014. It features updates to the analyzer technology, primary excitation sources and sputter depth–profiling sources.

In April, Zeiss launched the Zen 2 core imaging software for industrial and research applications, featuring an adaptable GUI.

Zeiss released a new generation of GeminiSEM FE-SEM systems, which combine electrostatic and magnetic fields and feature a four-step workflow.

JEOL introduced the JPS 9030 x-ray photoelectron spectrometer, featuring a newly designed user interface and Kaufman-type etching ion source, providing etching rates of 1–100 nm/min. The company is targeting annual sales of 20 units.

In June, JEOL launched the 200 kV JEM-2100Plus TEM system, which incorporates a thermionic-emission electron gun. The annual sales target is 50 units.

Delong America introduced in April in North America the LVEM25 TEM, a 25 kV benchtop TEM system.

In May, Park Systems introduced the NX-Hivac, a high-vacuum AFM system for failure analysis during semiconductor manufacturing. It can measure a wide range of dopant concentrations.

Leica Microsystems launched the TCS SP8 DLS, a digital light sheet microscope that is fully integrated into its TCS SP8 confocal microscope. The light sheet module is available as an add-on.

TESCAN launched the Q-PHASE microscope, a multimodal holographic microscope for quantitative phase imaging. The product marks TESCAN’s entry into the optical microscopy market.

In June, Oxford Instruments introduced the NordlysMax3 electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) detector, calling it the fastest commercial EBSD system. It acquires indexes and displays results at 1,580 points per second.