SPI Supplies® Brand Silicon Membrane Window Grids for TEM
As the world's largest source for membrane windows including silicon nitride and silicon oxide,
SPI Supplies can now offer silicon membranes, both for x-ray windows and also as TEM grids.
But some of our customers are doing spectroscopy (e.g. EDS, EELS, etc.) on specimens mounted on
these windows and the data is being negatively impacted because of the absorption edge of either
nitrogen (in the case of the nitride) or oxygen (in the case of the oxide). Therefore the requests
for silicon windows.
And we have other customers who are creating nanosize structures that contain either oxygen or
nitrogen and they need to have substrates that are free of these elements for meaningful EDS
and EELS data. Other users find that by perforating the membrane they can use the edges of
the holes as nucleation sites for nanowires and nanofibers and it has been postulated that
for certain types of work, a perforated silicon membrane offers the possibility for being superior.
All of these windows take advantage of the very latest MEMS technology, with the silicon
nitride membranes being the easiest to product. Silicon oxide is much more difficult because
of the internal stresses that are built up in the oxide layer, causing a wrinkling effect and
loss of flatness. Making silicon membranes has been our greatest challenge ever.
We will be offering products for both TEM and x-ray applications. We anticipate our first products of this new product line will be available by mid-summer 2007. Return to this page for the latest information on products and availability.
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Monday December 01, 2008
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