22 Aug Japanese institute installs Imago system
Madison, Wis. — A microscope developed by a Madison company to pinpoint individual atoms and to produce an electron image has been put to use by a Japanese organization and will be showcased at an upcoming symposium in California.
The device, the LEAP 3000 Metrology System, is made by Imago Scientific Instruments of Madison. LEAP stands for local electrode atom probe. It is used for looking at the structure and composition of metals and complex nanotechnology equipment at the atomic level.
A system has been installed by the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Tokyo. CRIEPI will use it for advanced metallurgy in areas such as examining nuclear power pressure containment vessels, and for examining the thin-film heads used in disk drives.
Imago will also be showcasing its technology at the 31st International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, Nov. 6-10, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. The Imago booth will outline how electron microscope technology is likely to be taking on a greater role in failure analysis as microelectronic feature sizes become smaller and smaller.
“The materials that are used to make the pressure containment vessels are complex metallurgical alloys whose properties are affected by microstructure at the near-atomic level,” said Imago CEO Tim Stultz. “Our tool allows the scientists and development engineers to analyze and understand the atomic structure of the materials, which directly relate to the proprieties, in particular the strength and yield ductility of the pressure containment vessels.”
• Read more about Imago Scientific in this previous WTN articles:
• Engineers chart semiconductors on the scale of atoms
• Seagate adopts Imago’s nanotech microscope
• Imago provides atomic probe to Australian lab