Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (EDXRF) is a fast, nondestructive spectroscopy technique used to determine the elemental composition of a near-surface volume, and to compute thin film thickness in a multilayer stack.

An X-Ray beam is focused on the sample and used to excite fluorescence within the outermost 200-500 um of the material. Fluorescent signal photons are produced when electrons in the sample atoms excite to a higher energy level, then relax to their original states. As a result, the fluoresced photons have characteristic energies associated with the species of their parent atom. The EDXRF detector resolves the incoming photons by their energy to yield a final spectrum of peaks associated with the elements in the specimen, whose intensities are correlated to the concentration of each element and its depth in the sample.

Uniquely available at Covalent is one of the first EDXRF systems ever to incorporate a micron-scale beam spot (on the order of 10s of microns), allowing it to achieve unprecedented spatial resolution. In addition, the system incorporates quad-EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray) detectors, increasing sensitivity and reducing measurement time. This system has an analytical chamber operable above vacuum pressures, and furthermore integrates an integrated 2D optical microscope with limit pixel size of 0.11 um, and a chromatic dispersion height sensor to allow true correlative analyses and hybrid sensor workflows. Together, the unique combination of detectors enables precise calibration of the area to be measured and high speed data collection. These in turn facilitate high-resolution element mapping and line-scan applications, as well as pattern recognition for accelerated high-throughput analysis.