Recently I came across a piece of technology that made me wonder about the various possibilities that it brings to us. It is still very expensive equipment. However, if you think about portable ultra-sound devices were 20~30 thousand dollars not too long ago, as the technology advances, and graphic cards become better, and it may not be a distant future where these devices will be for consumers. The device I’m talking about is Tabletop SEM. SEM stands for Scanning Electron Microscope. It’s basically an electronic microscope as we know it, but without the bulk. It could literally fit on your desk (albeit, it still has to be a little large desk, but it’s practically about the same size as a computer). But, if you think about how computers used to take up an entire room and they were not as powerful as our handheld smartphones, you can see where I’m going with this.
These devices can take images of, for example, inside the battery cell to see if there are any defects. This could prevent future issues such as battery explosions, which we see a lot more often than we want to hear. It could also view inside cells to see how the complicated interactions work inside biological cells. One of the sectors that adopted this technology heavily is the semiconductor industry. Because of their nature of having to deal with their components at a nano-meter level, a close inspection is a must when it comes to the semiconductor industry.
Some of the image magnifications are upwards of 3,000,000 times with regular Scanning Electron Microscope. With the tabletop version, there are products that make 150,000 times possible. Which is an incredible feat considering the size is as big as a computer body.
I remember when my mom bought a science kit and was excited to take a look inside that lens with a 10 times magnification microscope. I was having a blast looking at hair strands, coins, I think we caught a bug or two to take a look at it. And then there was a 50 times magnification lense option, and boy that gave me a perspective of a whole new world. So, when I came across this information about an electronic microscope that could fit on your desk, I was excited and felt like I was going back to childhood.
With the advancement of technology, these machines allow us to explore a new world. Ultrasound devices brought a quiet revolution to the medical field. Doctors are now being trained on how to use them, and for example, when they are doing an injection, they can actually see it live where the medicine is being injected to. I bet the same is revolution taking place with this Tabletop SEM for many fields. Are you part of it?