Xradia Delivers Hard X-ray Nanoprobe Microscope to Argonne National Laboratory
Friday June 22, 2007
Concord, CA/Argonne, IL, 22-June-2007: Xradia, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of ultra-high-resolution X-ray imaging systems for 3D tomography and nanotechnology applications, announced the delivery of the first hard X-ray Nanoprobe instrument (nanoPi), which has been developed together with Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM). The nanoPi delivers an unprecedented high resolution of better than 30 nm at hard X-ray energies for elemental and structural analysis using scanning probe and full-field transmission X-ray microscopy. The nanoPi has been installed at the hard X-ray Nanoprobe Beamline (ID-26) at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) and is one of the major characterization tools at the CNM.
High-resolution X-ray microscopy is of growing importance for research and industrial applications in diverse fields such as alternative energy, advanced semiconductor development, biotechnology and life sciences, advanced materials and nanotechnology. The unique ability of X-rays to penetrate samples of interest non-destructively, combined with X-ray optics that enable high-resolution focusing and imaging, gives researchers and engineers unprecedented access to knowledge about the inner structure and nature of objects. ‘The nanoPi will provide X-ray characterization at a spatial resolution of 30 nm which substantially exceeds the optical limit,’ said Dr. Eric Isaacs, Director of the CNM. ‘When integrated with the CNM’s materials synthesis, fabrication, theory and other characterization capabilities, the nanoPi will revolutionize the design of materials at the nanoscale,’ said Isaacs.
“This project will push the state of the art in X-ray microscopy to new levels of resolution, both in terms of X-ray optics and precision mechanical design, and enable qualitatively new studies of phenomena at the nanoscale unavailable up to now. ” said Dr. Jörg Maser, principal researcher at the CNM. “We are delighted to be teaming up with CNM on this critical program,” said Dr. Wenbing Yun, President and founder of Xradia. “Pushing X-ray optics to new levels of resolution, and marrying that with advanced system design and imaging software, opens up exciting new applications in a wide range of disciplines…” said Yun.
About Xradia, Inc.
Xradia, Inc. is a privately held company established in 2000 to commercialize high-resolution X-ray imaging and analysis instruments for nondestructive inspection, nanoscale imaging as well as elemental and structural analysis at the nanoscale. Initially targeted at failure analysis in the semiconductor IC industry, subsequent developments have led to a suite of commercial X-ray imaging and analytical products that have permitted expansion into markets that include metrology in semiconductor IC production, scientific equipment, biomedical research and nanotechnology development.
About Argonne National Laboratory
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
nanoPi:
Photograph of the core scanning and imaging system of the hard X-ray Nanoprobe instrument.
March 2007
Xradia Inc. announced the closing of a $7 million equity in a series of D financing round
June 2006
Xradia Announces $2.0M Contract for Hard X-ray Nanoprobe Instrument
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