News

09.10.2012

"The CCiTUB develop a new technology in the field of Electron Microscopy"

The Science and Technology Centers at UB have participated in the development of new technology to improve the performance of spectroscopic techniques currently available in most electron microscopes.

The project has been carried out by Joaquim Portillo, Sonia Estradé, and Lluis Yedra, technicians of the Transmission electron microscopy technology of the CCiTUB, together with researchers from the Department of Electronics at the Universitat de Barcelona and the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB). They have worked on a project signed by CCiTUB, in collaboration with NanoMEGAS, a Belgian company specialized in developing accessories for transmission electron microscopes, and AppFive, an American software company for microscopy.

This new technology is based on the combination of the electron beam precession with the electron energy-loss spectroscopy and X-ray electron spectroscopy in MET. The electron beam precession of the improves the signal to noise ratio in these analytical techniques and, therefore, the accuracy in the analysis of experimental data to extract quantitative information about the materials studied (e.g: atomic composition).

The UB has registered an European patent for this technology and its commercial application by the company NanoMEGAS has been negotiated.
The final product will be launched in late 2012 or early 2013.