SBIR Phase I: Miniature Scanning Electron Microscope for Biotechnology

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a portable, low cost, high-resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) for imaging biological and environmental samples. The SEM is the predominant tool in the scientific and engineering fields for imaging sub-micron structures and materials. Currently, these tools are not portable and are expensive to maintain making it difficult for small facilities and startups to acquire and impossible for in-field imaging and analysis. The company has significantly departed from the conventional design and fabrication methods of electron beam columns to build an affordable, scalable, high-resolution miniature SEM. The critical technology uses common semiconductor fabrication processes to make batch fabricated lens components in silicon substrates. This enables building a high-resolution electron beam column in a compact footprint that can be adapted for a variety of electron beam applications including imaging, writing and analysis. For researchers, developers and manufacturers who need to view and measure objects on a nanometer scale, this instrument will place nano-scale imaging capabilities on their desktops in a portable system that is convenient to use at an affordable price. Unlike conventional scanning electron microscopes that cost up to $1M and are the size of a refrigerator, this instrument will deliver images with nano-scale resolution at an order of magnitude lower cost and orders of magnitude smaller in size.