What is Ion milling?
It is a device that uses a broad, unfocused argon ion beam to irradiate a sample, utilizing the sputtering phenomenon to knock off sample atoms and thereby ablate the sample.
Solve electron microscope sample preparation problems with ion milling!
Are you facing problems with electron microscope sample preparation, such as the high volume and complexity of sampling, or longer processing times?
New Feature of ArBlade®5000: Advanced Control Software reduces the number of milling position setups required.
Advanced Control Software (ACS) enables users to freely assemble, save, and execute a series of milling processes. It also allows machining at multiple positions and under multiple milling conditions. Utilizing this ACS functionality enables automatic machining of multiple locations under individually specified conditions. This reduces the need for operators to return to the machine until the entire process is complete, decreases the number of milling preprocessing steps, and eases the operator's workload.
Figure 1 shows a microscopic image of an electronic board processed at multiple points using ACS. The processing width can also be set for each individual processing location.
New Feature of ArBlade®5000: Multi-Sample Holder Increases Number of Processed Specimens.
Using the ACS function and multi-sample holder, up to three samples can be processed in a single milling operation.
Processing conditions can be set for each sample, enabling automatic processing of multiple samples until completion while eliminating the need for manual vacuuming or venting. This allows operators to engage in other tasks during processing. The figure below shows the appearance of the multi-sample holder.
The figure below shows an example of processing three types of samples using a multi-sample holder. The samples are: ➀ Electronic circuit board, ② Metal plate with coating layer, ③ Thermal paper. The multi-sample holder enables processing under conditions suited to various materials, such as high acceleration voltage for short-time processing of electronic circuit boards and metal plates, and low acceleration voltage for thermal paper to minimize damage. Furthermore, multi-point processing and wide-area cross-section processing can be performed within each sample. For example, on the electronic circuit board, both ends were processed, and a 3mm-wide area was additionally processed on the left end. Thus, the multi-sample holder's specifications enable processing of multiple locations on multiple samples.
①Printed circuit board
②Coated metal sheet
③Thermal paper
＊ Example of one-day operation using ACS and multi-sample holder.
New Feature of ArBlade®5000: Wide-Area Processing Reduces Milling Pre-Treatment Time.
Using a sample stage designed for large specimens allows mounting of specimens up to 50 mm wide, enabling wide-area processing with a width of 40 mm.
Processing the entire specimen area without using ACS or multi-sample holders also enables reduced processing time.
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