Apr 15 2008
FEI Company and Imago Scientific Instruments today announced a comprehensive collaboration on the distribution and marketing of Imago’s LEAP™ product line. The arrangements allow for FEI to establish an equity position in Imago and the option to purchase Imago in the future.
Imago LEAP Atom Probe
The alliance combines FEI’s leadership in providing tools for nanoscale exploration and discovery with Imago’s leadership in providing innovative and commercially viable atom probe technology. Imago’s LEAP atom probe enhances the breadth of FEI’s offerings and compliments FEI’s current transmission electron microscope (TEM) and DualBeam™ focused ion-beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) product lines.
Imago pioneered, and is the market leader, in atom probe microscopy. Its LEAP product line is used worldwide for the study of advanced materials, semiconductors and data storage devices. Imago’s LEAP design enables fast and comprehensive analysis of materials at the atomic scale. The LEAP technique offers the unique combination of high compositional sensitivity in the parts-per-million (ppm) range and atomic resolution imaging in three dimensions.
Imago’s LEAP microscopes are complementary to TEMs such as the FEI Titan™ Family. In addition, sample preparation for both TEM and the atom probe is enabled by DualBeam tools, which FEI invented 15 years ago. FEI is the world’s leading supplier of both TEM and DualBeam platforms.
“We are delighted to join forces with Imago, as we believe its products and technology will enable FEI to further expand the horizons of imaging and analysis at the atomic scale,” stated Don Kania, President and CEO of FEI. “Our global sales team is excited about introducing Imago’s products to our worldwide customer base, and we believe that the alliance will provide benefits to all parties.”
Tom Kelly, CEO, CTO and founder of Imago added, “With the technology having evolved to the point where there is now a large universe of practical applications, the next step is for us to enhance our ability to deliver complete application solutions. Our customers are using the Imago atom probe together with FEI TEM and DualBeam platforms. By working with FEI, we are able to innovate, optimize and provide the full solution to the customer’s problem. For Imago, the new partnership is part of the evolution from being an instrumentation provider to a solution provider.”