Covalent Metrology Installs the Latest FIB/SEM Lamella Sample Preparation Instrument

The Silicon Valley lab expands its electron microscopy capabilities with industry leading S/TEM lamella sample preparation on the newly installed Thermo Scientific Helios 5 UX DualBeam instrument.

November 15, 2021 ­­– Sunnyvale, CA. Covalent Metrology,  a leading North American provider of analytical services, announces the installation of a new Thermo Scientific Helios 5 UX DualBeam Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope. The instrument is available now for client projects and is one of the only such tools available through an analytical service provider in the United States.

With the installation, Covalent now provides ultra-precise focused-ion-beam (FIB) capabilities, including enhanced lamella preparation for (scanning) transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM). Covalent customers in the semiconductor, nanotechnology, quantum computing, and microelectronics industries will benefit from groundbreaking FIB resolution at low FIB acceleration energies, allowing samples to be prepared with an amorphous damage layer thinner than 1 nm.

Covalent customers gain the most insights from S/TEM images generated from the best-prepared S/TEM samples. For experts to visualize elemental and structural information at atomic-scale resolution, samples must be prepared for imaging with pinpoint precision. Advanced ion-beam optics incorporated into the Helios 5 UX facilitate efficient and accurate milling and nanomanipulation. Combined with the automated alignments and improved resolution on the Helios 5 UX, samples can now be manipulated and prepared for S/TEM characterization or other FIB-SEM applications with unparalleled precision and reduced damage layers.

“Covalent’s Transmission Electron Microscopy Group is thrilled to use the new Helios 5 UX instrument to deliver even more vivid TEM and S/TEM analysis to our clients,” says Jason Donald, Director of Transmission Electron Microscopy at Covalent Metrology. “The Helios 5 UX is the top-of-line DualBeam available for this important work, and it allows us to reliably and efficiently generate the high-quality lamella needed to provide clients with the best possible TEM results.”

The Helios 5 UX’s automation and processing software maximizes consistency, and speed of S/TEM sample preparation at Covalent. With these additional capabilities, Covalent experts can now create multiple S/TEM lamella with unparalleled repeatability and quality for customer’s single site imaging needs, more advanced multi-point arrays for structured S/TEM analysis, as well as repeat or routine analytical projects.

Learn more about Covalent Metrology’s TEM,  S/TEM  and FIB-SEM capabilities.

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