2024-12-20 to 2025-01-02: Reduced Holiday Operations

Dear Birck Research Community,

The Purdue winter recess begins effective Friday afternoon December 20th and concludes Thursday morning, January 2. The university is officially closed during this time. As we have done in past years, the Birck Nanotechnology Center will remain available for research but will be unstaffed and hazardous gasses will be unavailable. Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Click the link above to get more detail about equipment conditions and rules.

Refer to the Material and Process Compatibility page for information on materials compatible with this tool.
Equipment Status: Set as UP, PROBLEM, or DOWN, and report the issue date (MM/DD) and a brief description. Italicized fields will be filled in by BNC Staff in response to issues. See Problem Reporting Guide for more info.

Status
Issue Date and Description	x
Estimated Fix Date and Comment	x
Responding Staff	Alejandro Alcaraz

iLab Name: Hitachi S-4800 Field Emission SEM
iLab Kiosk: Purdue Electron Microscopy Facility
FIC: Rosa Diaz
Owner: Alejandro Ramirez
Location: BRK 1235
Maximum Wafer Size: 4"/100 mm

Overview

General Description

The S-4800 Cold Field Emission SEM combines the outstanding high-resolution performance capabilities to offer superb resolution of ~ 2.0 nm at 30 kV. The equipment is equipped with a EDX detector for the detection of chemical elements on your sample at higher voltages.

Specifications

Accelerating voltages are from 500 V to 30 kV
Resolution ~ 2.0 nm at 30 kV
A choice of specimen stage: 4", 2" and 1" wafer and cross section

Hitachi Data Sheet

Technology Overview

Hitachi S-4800 is an electron beam microscope, that accelerates an electron beam in a vacuum environment to interact electrons with the sample of interest.

Sample Requirements and Preparation

Samples should be conductive to maximize sample imaging. With conductive samples features of 10nm can be observed with 5kV. Nonconductive samples can still be imaged, but not small features, limiting smallest resolutions to hundreds of nm, even microns, at low beam voltages (1-5kV). Non-conductive samples can become conductive if they are coated with Carbon, Au-Pd, or Silver paint.

Standard Operating Procedure

Quick guide... click here to expand

QUICK GUIDE–Complete Guide in Computer desktop

Fill SEM w Nitrogen 1 or 2 times if empty
Load Sample at specific height
Turn On Small screen
Click AIR
- Open chamber manually
- Mount sample in Post
  - Unlock knob, Mount sample, then Lock knob
Close the chamber
Press EVAC
Open software PCSEM
Make sure stage is in EXC (Exchange) position
Click OPEN button
- Insert post, Unlock, Remove Post, Hold Post
- Press CLOSE button
- Move stage to HME (Home) position
- Flash (if necessary)
- Turn Beam On
- Find spot, adjust L/H magnification, scanning dwell time, focusing, stigmation, and alignment
- Save image with Picture Icon
- Turn Off beam
- Move stage to EXC position
- Open Chamber
- Put Post in
- In Unlock, Lock Sample, Pull post out
- Close Door
- Click Air
- Open Exchange Chamber
- Remove your sample
- Close chamber
- Click EVAC

Hitachi Manual Here

Questions & Troubleshooting

Any questions? Please write them down here or contact the Electron Microscopy Staff

References

Inkson, B. J. "Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for materials characterization." Materials characterization using nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods. Woodhead Publishing, 2016. 17-43.

Sharma, Surender Kumar, et al., eds. Handbook of Materials Characterization. Springer International Publishing, 2018.

Reimer, Ludwig. Scanning electron microscopy: physics of image formation and microanalysis. Vol. 45. Springer, 2013.