Electron microscope access

[astouffer]

A friend of mine just acquired a pretty decent electron microscope. So if anyone has some fake or suspected fake parts and wants to see what the die looks like let me know.

 

[Pano]

Wow, that's cool!

 

[phase]

I just saw one for sale in the semi-local classifieds, had my interest…

Would be cool to find what I believe was Cal-Poly did to allow for an increase in resolution, amplification to allow for more detailed views. They were witnessing movements in metal grain structures at the boundary level.

 

[Pano]

Do the samples need to be gold plated? Does that come with the microscope?

 

[DPH]

@Pano, depends on the part being imaged/measured. Something like an IC in plan view shouldn't need much in the way of coating because the highly doped regions and all the metallization there gives you a current pathway. Shouldn't need a gold/carbon coating for this application.

 

[simon7000]

I trust it is not the FEI Quanta that went missing from a local university!

 

[astouffer]

No gold plating necessary.

 

[syn08]

Interesting, what kind of vacuum pumps does it use? Does it need other resources beyond power, like nitrogen for venting, water for cooling, compressed air, etc...?

Such a microscope is not really needed to identify fake semis, in particular power devices. A good regular optical microscope is good enough. That, if simple electrical measurements don't tell the story up front.