There are many kinds of microscopes and among the most useful are the electron microscopes. These are developed to improve the limited capacity of light microscope. Electron microscopes use beam of electrons which are highly energetic such that objects are examined in a very fine state.
Electron microscopes can yield information regarding morphology or the composition of a certain object; topography or how an object looks like and the composition or arrangement of atoms in a certain object. With these information from electron microscope, it’s not surprising that it is used nowadays by many industries. Electron microscopy is applied in certain areas such as mining, forensics, petrochemical, virology, materials qualification and a lot more; thus electron microscope brands are flooding the market.
Generally, there are two kinds of Electron Microscope: the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The major manufacturers of electron microscope are Hitachi and JEOL in Japan, TESCAN in EU, FOCUS GmbH in Germany, FEI in USA and the Delong Group. The popular electron microscopes brands are enumerated below. Interchangeably, the following units are used: nm or nanometer, kV or kilovolt, WD or Working Distance, mm or millimeters.
1. The JEOL Series. JEOL 6600 WINSEM, JEOL JSM-840 and JEOL JSM 6320 F comprise the JEOL series. JEOL 6600 WINSEM is generally applied to investigate materials. The magnification is LGS 15x to 200,000x (WD= 48mm). The resolution is 5nm at 30kv (WD=10nm). Accelerating voltage is 0.5-30kv.
JEOL JSM-840 is equipped with filament and Lab 6. Its magnification is 2.10x to 300,000x. There is a backscatter image of electron for topography and composition examination. It has EDS detector in its ultra thin window, a large chamber for specimen and an automated specimen stage.
JEOL JSM 6320 F on the other hand is high resolution (2.5nm at 1kV and 1.2nm at 15kV) and requires low accelerating voltages (ranging from 0.5 to 30kV). These electron microscopes have cold field emission source. High resolutions st low accelerating voltages are possible with JSM 6320 because of the design of its objective lens. Secondary electron detector is attached to the lens’ bore and any specimens can be bought higher into the lens field. A secondary electron lens which is second conventional is placed below its lens thus producing clearer topographic images.
2. FEI XL 30 is a software controlled, fully digital and versatile scanning electron microscope with superior performances both in analysis and imaging. This microscope is optimized for both low magnification and high resolution imaging due to conical final lens in the electron column. Sizes can be spotted and selection of kV can be done rapidly because of the column design, computerized alignment and the fixed final lens hole. The resolution is 3.5 nm at 30kV and the range of voltage is 0.2 to 30 kV.
3. Amray 1610T is a scanning electron microscope which is equipped with Lab6 filament and Tungsten that gives out 3 nm resolution. It is capable of 64,000 by 64,000 resolution and 30 beams/sec. scanning. Amray 1610T also comes with dynamic magnification and digital planning.
4. Hitachi HD2000 is a STEM or Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope with ultra thin film. The electron source is field emission of cold cathode. The available images are secondary, phase-contrast and z contrast. The resolution is 0.24 nm at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. The sample size is 3mm in diameter but the maximum magnification can be from 100x up to 5,000,000x.
5. Camscan S2-80DV Electron Microscope is now under Tescan USA. The CamScan S2-80DV SEM is designed for analytical applications. It yields 4nm resolution at an accelerating voltage of 500 volts to 40 kilovolts. The magnification ranges from 60x – 300,000x at a continuous zoom. It is also capable of dual magnification and dynamic focusing. The specimen chamber is multi ported and extra large which can carry samples with height of over 80mm, weight of over 3 kilograms and diameter of over 200mm. The backscatter detector is fully retractable. Other brands under Tescan are Tescan Vega-II and Tescan Mira-I. All have varying useful specifications and designs.
The invention of Electron microscope is another breakthrough that is specifically beneficial to highly sophisticated industries. Electron microscope brands are specifically needed because of the functions and specifications that each brand carries. Knowing many good brands will lead any buyer to fewer mistakes. Getting acquainted with some of the electron microscope brands is an initial step to be familiar with the electron microscope essentials which will be applied to any scientific or work purposes.
