Plasma cleaning and surface activation for TEM and SEM samples, grids and holders
A plasma system better than Gatan Solarus plasma cleaner and Fishione 1070 plasma cleaner. Customers in many prestigious research institutes around the world have purchased our Tergeo-EM plasma system for cryo-EM, in-situ TEM, materials research, and other types of high-resolution electron microscopy applications. Tergeo-EM plasma cleaning system and TEM holder vacuum storage system have been well received by TEM & SEM users in Caltech, UC-Berkeley, UIUC, NIH, Harvard, EAG Laboratories, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Max-Planck-Institut in Germany, the University of Leeds in the UK, Tsinghua University in China, National University in Singapore, and so on. Many of our Tergeo-EM customers are former users of Gatan Solarus and Fishione plasma cleaners. They all think our Tergeo-EM plasma system and vacuum storage system are much easier to use and are very versatile.
Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner can be used to remove hydrocarbon contaminations on TEM and SEM samples. It can accept two TEM specimen holders at the same time. The front adapter can be easily replaced to support more than two different types of TEMS. Users can also directly load SEM and TEM samples into the plasma chamber. The chamber is bigger enough to hold two 4″ wafers. Tergeo-EM has been widely used to make TEM grid hydrophilic for cryo-EM applications. It can also activate the surface of the liquid cell in-situ chip. Unique dual plasma source design and pulsed mode operation enable a wide range of applications including high-speed removal of STEM carbon burn mark, clean carbon deposition on column apertures, and gentle surface activation of ultra-thin holey carbon grids and graphene grids.
Applications:
- Removing hydrocarbon contamination on TEM and SEM samples before imaging.
- Removing carbon deposition after STEM imaging.
- Making TEM grid hydrophilic for cryo-EM applications. Unique gentle downstream mode and pulsed plasma can handle ultra-thin carbon and graphene grids without damaging the fragile grids
- Removing organic contamination and activate in-situ TEM and SEM chip surface. Making liquid cell surface hydrophilic.
- Support ThermoFisher (FEI), JEOL and Hitachi specimen holder, cryo-em autoloader cassette, SEM stud, and regular TEM grids on any holders
Features:
Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner is the only TEM/SEM plasma cleaner that has integrated both immersion mode plasma cleaning (samples are immersed in plasma) and downstream mode plasma cleaning (samples are placed outside the plasma) in one system. Downstream plasma cleaning totally eliminates the ion sputtering of samples. In addition, unique pulsed mode operation can generate extremely short plasma pulses to further reduced the plasma intensity for delicate samples. Patented plasma sensor technology monitors the plasma strength in real-time. It helps users to set up the right cleaning recipe for different types of samples.
Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner can meet all the requirements from high speed cleaning for heavily contaminated apertures and electrodes in electron optics column to gentle cleaning for samples like graphene, carbon nanotube, DLC (diamond-like carbon), carbon fiber, or TEM samples on holey carbon grid. Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner is equipped with an oil-free dry pump safe for oxygen service. Usually, air or 80%Ar 20%O2 gas mixture can be used for SEM/TEM sample cleaning application. Two to three mass flow controlled gas delivery ports are available to mix multiple process gases.
