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Commercial and industrual use of our laboratory is welcomed. Our lab has experience analyzing a wide range of materials (ores and rocks, metals and alloys, thin films, sediments, ceramics, composites) for various uses (quality control, product testing, characterization, research and development). Our clients have come from numerous industries and research fields (semiconductors, civil engineering, medical technology, geological exploration, electronics and photonics, chemical and mechanical engineering).
The examples below do not represent actual commercial work. All of the situations described here are based on some of the materials our lab has analyzed, but these "case studies" are purely exemplary.
Fictional Semiconductor, Inc. is interested in quality control of their microchips and in any small variations when the manufacturing process is changed slightly. The element maps below show a microchip in cross-section: the casing composed mainly of silicon and carbon surrounds the electrode, which has a silver coating as well as a gold wire. The manufacturing department wants to track the sizes and compositions of the silicon particles, the thickness of the silver layer, and number of iron concentrations in the electrode (the red spots in the iron map).
Acme Films Corporation is experimenting with different methods of depositing a gallium-arsenic thin film on a silicon substrate, and they are interested in the compositional homogeneity of their films. The "Thin Film" correction method built into the JEOL software is used, and the points for analysis are set in a grid by the software as well. The points are spaced 25 microns apart, and the precise X-Y-Z coordinates are recorded for each analysis. Acme Films uses the analyses and the X-Y-Z coordinates to evaluate their different methods of film deposition.
Brick Company A wants to know how their red bricks compare to those manufactured by Brick Company B. The false-color backscatter images below, which show areas 2 mm by 2 mm in size, illustrate a few of the differences between the bricks from the two companies. The mineral inclusions clearly have different sizes in the different bricks, and quantitative analyses revealed that somewhat different minerals and clays were used in their manufacture.
Bricks from Company A
Bricks from Company B
General Metallurgy LLC wants slag products and inclusions within the slag characterized. In particular, their engineers would like to know the distributions of silicon and aluminum as well as the major elements in the inclusions. Element maps revealed the aluminum was concentrated in bands and at the interfaces of the two main metallic phases. Silicon was present in both of the two phases but at different concentrations, which were then measured with quantitative WDS analysis. There were two major types of inclusions (titanium- and molybdenum-based), and the minor and trace elements present were also measured using quantitative WDS analysis.
Element Maps of Slag
General Metallurgy is also interested in comparing this slag material to that produced by two alternate manufacturing processes. Backscattered electron images immediately show the micro-structural differences between these slags, and their chemical compositions were compared using both EDS and WDS analyses.
Backscattered-Electron Images of Slags
International Thingamajig Corporation wants to study the corrosion that occurs at the interface between the coating and substrate of the widgets they manufacture. A small portion of a widget was mounted in epoxy so that its cross-section was exposed, and the maps below show a coating about 10 microns thick and corrosion into the substrate of about the same thickness. Quantitative analyses were conducted at regular intervals of 2 microns, from the coating exterior to the widget interior, in order to study the diffusion and corrosion that occurred at the interface.
probelab@umn.edu
Phone: 612-624-7370
With respect to geoscience research, our electron microprobe is often used for igneous, metamorphic, and experimental petrology as well as mineral studies and geochronology. In addition to rocks and minerals, we have conducted analyses of metals and alloys, thin films, ceramics and composites, glass, optical fibers, teeth and bones, and many other natural and artificial materials.
We have experience analyzing various materials for industrial purposes, including:
Our clients have come from numerous industries and research fields, including: