In a move that marks the beginning of a new era in microscopy,
Carl
Zeiss SMT, a leading global provider of electron- and
ion-beam imaging and analysis solutions, today officially presented the
ORION™ Helium ion microscope at the Microscopy and
Microanalysis 2007 conference. The microscope’s technology is
based on proprietary intellectual property developed by ALIS
Corporation, a Peabody, Massachusetts-based start-up company acquired
by Carl Zeiss SMT in 2006.
“We are extremely pleased to have achieved this
milestone,” said Dirk Stenkamp, member of the Carl Zeiss SMT
executive board. “Today, we are presenting a breakthrough
technology in microscopy, an advancement that will provide our
customers with the power to discover things they have never seen
before, and to solve problems never before solvable.”
According to Carl Zeiss SMT, this new microscope is capable of
providing images of unrivalled high resolution, surface information and
material contrast, unachievable with any other microscopy instrument
available today and paving the way for a new era in sub-nanometer,
ultra-high resolution scanning microscopy.
The ORION™ scanning ion microscope uses a beam of
Helium ions —rather than electrons typically used in scanning
electron microscopes (SEM) — to image and measure. Since
Helium ions can be focused into a substantially smaller probe size and
provide a much smaller sample interaction compared to electrons, the
ORION™ system can generate higher resolution images with
greatly improved material contrast at a substantially extended depth of
focus.
Bill Ward, principal inventor of the Helium Ion Microscope,
founder of ALIS Corporation and Chief Technologist at Carl Zeiss SMT
Inc., said, “Our new Helium Ion Microscope is possible
because of a significant breakthrough in physics. Because the
ORION™ ion beam appears to be emanating from a region which
is less than an angstrom in size, the resulting ion beam has a
remarkable brightness. This makes it possible to focus the beam into a
very small probe size. Ultimately, this microscope will enable further
scientific advancements in a large number of fields, such as
semiconductor process control, life science applications and materials
analysis.”
Commenting on the high level of international interest in this
instrument, Stenkamp said, “Customer demand is very strong
and we have already successfully installed a Helium ion Microscope at a
key customer in the United States. We are pleased to announce that the
world’s first ORION™ Helium ion microscope was
shipped to the U.S. National Institute for Science and Technology
(NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland where it has been installed in the
Advanced Measurement Laboratory (AML), one of the most technically
advanced laboratory facilities in the world.”