Circuitworks MicroTip™ Conductive Silver Pen

This is the high precision product needed for a PC board repair

Use Instructions:

Scanning electron microscopy

The first step is to apply the silver "dot".

The presumption is that one would be looking at small particle grains and we would then suggest using as the substrate either a) glass cover slip if topographical SEM work would be contemplated or b) cleaved piece of HOPG if EDS work is contemplated. Both the glass cover slip and HOPG would be structureless and featureless when viewed by SEM and provided the grain being mounted would be larger than the silver paint "dot", there should be no visibility of the silver particles as well.

There are several different reasons why one would want to use the MicroTipT Conductive Silver Pen:

Attachment of samples to the mount

The silver paint serves as the ideal conductive adhesive which for SEM examination is highly important in terms of grounding the sample. Even for EDS work, assuming the particle being held is much larger than the "dot" size, there should be minimal or no x-rays coming from the silver dot.
- Highlighting of the sample on the mount
The MicroTip Conductive Silver Pen is the ideal "marker" for making it easy to find a particular area once the sample is in the SEM. For example, a "fish-eye" in a polymer film can be seen easily by eye but once in the SEM, if there is little or no topographical effect, being sure one is actually "on" the defect can be difficult. But if the area of interest is "highlighted" first, then the uncertainty and potential ambiguities are eliminated.
- Pointing out specific samples or features
Sometimes it is possible to mount multiple samples on a single SEM mount, making it easier and faster to accomplish the inspection of all of the samples. But great care must be taken to keep from getting similar looking samples getting mixed up. This can be easily avoided by using the MicroTip Conductive Silver Pen.

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Repair:
Many older printed circuit boards suffer from "hair line" cracks that appear in the conductor lines. One such a hair line crack is identified, one needs only to "write" over the crack with the MicroTipT Conductive Silver Pen. The small size of the dot or line makes possible the confining of the silver to the conductor line with no spill-over to the board itself. For larger cracks, it might be advisable to use either a) a pen with a wider line, such as the SPI Silver Kwik-Stik™ or even b) the SPI Supplies® brand of silver paint.

Automotive windshield conductor line repair:
In most instances, we believe the SPI Supplies^® brand of silver paint would be a better choice.

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