Carl Zeiss SMT today officially put into service the 1,500th GEMINI®-class scanning electron microscope. The customer is the "Center for Non-Destructive Nano Evaluation nanoeva®" in Dresden, a joint facility of the Electronics Packaging Laboratory (German abbreviation: IAVT) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Non-Destructive Testing (IZFP-D) through its Dresden-based department. One of the key applications for which nanoeva® will be using the electron microscope is to carry out research on the packaging of electronic and microtechnical modules for system integration. The mix of materials this involves, ranging from silicon to plastics, requires the development of tailor-made methods of analysis.
The system, which was specifically configured for nanoeva®, offers a special combination that incorporates high-resolution imaging of sample details plus a multitude of analysis options, such as chemical element analysis and size and distance measurements with levels of accuracy to the order of millionths of a millimeter. The Head of Electron Microscopy Product Management at Carl Zeiss, Dr. Thomas Albrecht, emphasizes some of the key benefits: “1,500 GEMINI®-class scanning electron microscopes not only reflect just how much confidence customers have in this technology and its applications, but also offer an opportunity to link up with a whole host of users worldwide and exchange experiences on how to put these tools to optimum use. Obviously, this is an area where we also incorporate the many years of experience accrued by our application specialists. We work towards the goal of extracting as much information as possible from samples while demonstrating to our customers that we are a partner they can trust.”
Professor Klaus-Jürgen Wolter from the IAVT at Dresden University of Technology explains further: “Cutting-edge research in the field of microtechnologies and nanotechnologies requires high-performance tools to analyze and visualize samples. The GEMINI® scanning electron microscope from Carl Zeiss is the ideal supplement to our range of analysis tools. We now have the kind of abundant resources that allow us to make great headway with both our own work and with projects for our clients. It has also given a further productivity boost to the bridge between industrial development and the realms of research and teaching.”