AttoMap-310
XRF Microscope
Highest resolution XRF on the market Ambient and Vacuum (low-Z)
Award Winning (Microscopy Today)
Key Advantages:
All the benefits of the AttoMap-200:
- Highest resolution laboratory microXRF
Achieve down to single digit microns (3-5 µm) - Sub-ppm sensitivity
Quantify down to sub parts per million (ppm) levels with Sigray’s flexible software packages - Energy tunability
Maximize throughput and sensitivity with up to 5 different incident x-ray spectra
Plus, advances exclusive to the AttoMap-310, including:
- Achieves shallow angle imaging for thin samples (e.g., biological) and/or diffraction removal
AttoMap-310 features a goniometer to enable normal to shallow angle of incidence imaging - Light element detection
Analyze down to trace-level organics within the AttoMap’s high vacuum chamber
Highest Resolution of any XRF Microscope on the Market
Micro x-ray fluorescence (microXRF) provides excellent sensitivity for compositional analysis, typically offering 1000X the sensitivity of electron-based spectroscopy (ppm vs. ppt). The primary limitation of laboratory-based microXRF has been the achievable spot sizes, which are typically around 20-50 µm. Sigray’s AttoMap achieves the highest spatial resolutions available, in the range of single-digit micrometers (3-5 µm), through its proprietary x-ray focusing optics. These optics are significantly more efficient and produce much smaller spot sizes than the polycapillary optics used by other laboratory microXRFs.
Sub-ppm Sensitivities (Sub-Femtogram)
AttoMap achieves unprecedented sensitivity, with absolute detection limits in the sub-femtogram range and relative detection limits in the sub-parts per million range. This enables high-throughput microscopy of trace element distributions. The system’s accuracy and speed have led to its adoption by leading semiconductor companies for monitoring processes involving trace-level dopants.
Energy Tunability for High Throughput and Sensitivities
X-ray fluorescence is highly dependent on the energy of the illuminating x-ray beam. Fluorescence cross-sections can vary by several orders of magnitude, as shown in the corresponding table of selected elements. Sigray’s AttoMap-310 provides easy software-selection of up to five target materials, including exotic options such as a silicon-based source and a gold-based source, ensuring optimal sensitivity for a broad range of elements. In contrast, other x-ray sources are limited to a single target material, restricting sensitivity and throughput optimization to only a subset of materials.
The significant impact of energy tunability through x-ray source target selection is visually demonstrated in the image below, comparing an arsenopyrite sample imaged using a tungsten (W) target and a molybdenum (Mo) target.
Shallow Angle Imaging for Biological, Geological, and Semiconductor Samples
A key feature of the AttoMap-310 is its incorporation of a goniometer stage which allows for a wide range of incidence angles from normal incidence (90 degrees) to near-grazing (3 degrees) incidence. This provides several advantages. For thin samples such as tissue sections or thin films, imaging can be significantly improved at shallower x-ray incidence angles as the x-ray interaction volume increases and background noise is substantially reduced. For crystalline samples (e.g., silicon wafers), diffraction peaks can be completely avoided.
Light Element Detection
AttoMap-310 enables detection of elements down to B and enables trace-level (<1%) quantification of organics such as C, O, N. This is achieved through the system’s incorporation of a specialized low-energy detector and a vacuum enclosure capable of reaching evacuated environments better than 10⁻⁴ Torr. The system can also operate in ambient mode for maximum flexibility.
For more information on the AttoMap for semiconductor applications, please download the applications note below:
System Features
- Patented high brightness x-ray source with 50X brightness over those used in other leading microXRF systems and provides up to 5 different spectra in a single source
- Mirror Lens x-ray optics with major advantages over conventional polycapillary microXRF systems
- Goniometer stage for variable angle imaging (3 to 90 degrees)
- Vacuum enclosure that achieves down to <10^-4 Torr
- Wide range of flexible and intuitive software routines, from mineralogy to semiconductor-focused wafer pattern navigation, flexible and customizable Jupyter notebooks, and fundamental parameters analysis for weight percentages
Patented Multi-Target Ultrahigh Brightness X-ray Source
Sigray’s x-ray source, when combined with x-ray optics, delivers over 50X the brightness of the illumination beam (source + optics) systems used in other leading microXRF systems. The source achieves this through a patented design in which multiple target materials are in optimal thermal contact with diamond, which has excellent thermal conductivity. The rapid cooling of diamond enables higher power loading on the x-ray source, producing intense beams of x-rays. This thermal advantage allows for a wider range of x-ray source target materials, each generating strong characteristic x-rays of a specific energies. Up to five target materials can be customized for the AttoMap-310 source, enabling software-based selection of the optimal spectra for a given sample. The power of energy tunability is clearly demonstrated in the previously shown example.
Mirror Lens: Double Paraboloidal X-ray Optics
The focusing x-ray optic is just as critical as the x-ray source in determining the performance of any microXRF system. Sigray is the leading producer of x-ray optics and only manufacturer capable of fabricating the mirror lens x-ray imaging optics used in the AttoMap systems. Other microXRF systems use polycapillary optics to guide x-rays onto a spot at the sample.
Sigray’s mirror lens overcomes several major drawbacks of polycapillaries, including limited depth-of-field and chromatic aberrations. AttoMap’s larger depth-of-field enables high-resolution imaging of samples that cannot be finely polished to a flat surface and/or have topographical variations. The absence of chromatic aberrations also allows for superior quantification, as only a single spot produces x-rays on the sample. In contrast, when chromatic aberration is present, different x-ray energies are focused at varying diameters on the sample, making it difficult to determine the precise location of x-ray production.
Goniometer Stage
AttoMap-310 can achieve near-grazing incidences on samples, maximizing the detector’s solid angle of collection and enhancing the x-ray interaction with thin samples. This results in substantially faster acquisition times. By rotating the sample through a patent-pending approach called Computed Laminography X-ray Fluorescence Imaging (CL-XRFI), high resolution can be maintained even when at low incidence angles. Another advantage of variable-angle acquisitions is the ability to completely avoid diffraction peaks from crystalline materials, such as silicon wafers.
Vacuum Enclosure
AttoMap-310 is enclosed in a vacuum chamber capable of achieving environments down to below 10⁻⁴ Torr. This is critical for trace-level (<1%) quantification of low atomic number elements, such as organic contaminants. In comparison, systems with lower vacuum levels or helium environments can only detect large concentrations of organic materials because the low x-ray energies of these elements (for example, carbon is only 282 eV) are quickly attenuated by even a small number of atoms between the sample and the detector.
Software
AttoMap-200 comes with a suite of extendable and intuitive software. The software provides different advantages, depending on the application of interest:
- Semiconductor: Automated pattern recognition on wafers enables high throughput recipe-based point analysis on wafers.
- Geology: Mineralogical classification through an AI-based clustering algorithm to segment grains and identify their mineralogy based on the elemental composition.
- Materials Science and Life Sciences: Weight percentage through both standards-based and standardless fundamental parameters analysis through a GUI interface. Sigray also provides Jupyter notebooks customized for quantification routines of interest and can be easily extended or modified by users with some understanding of Python.
Software functions include: Single and multi-file analysis, spectral fitting and deconvolution, fundamental parameter (FP) model implementation for standard-less quantification, relative weight percentage calculations using the FP model, spectral clustering using machine learning, spectral decompositions, optical and fluorescence image overlay, and open-box extensibility.
Applications
Mineralogy
Automated mineralogy using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has become a dominant approach used in natural resource exploration and process monitoring. AttoMap provides a powerful complement to SEM-based mineralogy approaches by offering 1000X the sensitivity of SEM-EDS for trace elemental mapping. The system’s intuitive software features AI-based grain segmentation and mineralogical identification. Additionally, the AttoMap-310 provides unprecedented sensitivity for light elements, such as B, C, O, N, P, etc.
Life Sciences and Metallomics
AttoMap was originally designed for life science research with support of NIH funding. Applications in the life sciences include studying pathologies (e.g., cancer and Wilson’s Disease) that are hypothesized to be related to the dysregulation of trace elements such as iron and copper, analyzing the distribution of nanoparticle-based therapeutics after injection, and examining environmental uptake of contaminants.
Semiconductor
AttoMap has been adopted by leading semiconductor companies for monitoring dopants and ultrathin films on test patterns. The system also provides trace-level measurements of organic contaminants and low atomic number (Z) materials, such as B, within its vacuum environment. Residues of key semiconductor elements, such as TiN, Ge, Al, and Mo₂N, can be analyzed at extremely high sensitivities within a test pad with AttoMap’s navigation software, which features optical pattern recognition for unsupervised, recipe-based acquisition of points. Details are provided in this applications note.
Environmental / Botany
Synchrotron XRF has become the technique of choice for many plant scientists studying element distribution. Such studies include metal uptake for phytoremediation (environmental reclamation), nutrient absorption, and the development of genetically modified plants with desirable characteristics, such as drought resistance and improved nutritional content.
Contaminants and Impurities in Industrial Processes (e.g., Batteries)
AttoMap is the highest-resolution microXRF system on the market (e.g., 5 micrometers vs. 20+ micrometers) and offers the highest sensitivity. This allows it to uniquely resolve micron-scale impurities that can be catastrophic, such as Fe impurities in battery electrodes. As reported in Cell Report Physical Science, AttoMap was successfully used to localize small particles of Zr, Hf, Cr, Fe, Cu, and Zn in a battery electrode.
Technical Specifications of the AttoMap-310
| Parameter | Specification | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | Spatial Resolution | Down to 3-5 μm with high resolution optic. 7-10 μm with standard optics. |
| Sensitivity | Sub-ppm relative detection sensitivity. Picogram to femtogram absolute sensitivity. | |
| Variable Angle Acquisition | 3 degrees (near-grazing) to 90 degrees (normal) in 0.01 degree increments. | |
| Source | Type | Sigray patented ultrahigh brightness sealed microfocus source |
| Target(s) | Up to 5 targets. Includes selection from Si, Cr, Cu, Rh, W, Mo, Au, Ti, Ag. Others available upon request. |
|
| Power | Voltage | 50W | 20-45 kVp | |
| X-ray Optic | Type | Sigray proprietary double paraboloidal x-ray mirror lens |
| Transmission Efficiency | ~80% | |
| Magnification | 1:1 magnification default Demagnifying optics for higher resolution available upon request |
|
| Interior Coating | Platinum for increasing collection efficiency of optic | |
| X-ray Detector | Type | SDD Detector |
| Energy Resolution | <129 eV at Mn-Ka | |
| Dimensions | Footprint | 54" W x 65.5" H x 38.5" D |
| Stage Travel | 120 x 100 mm (upgrades available upon request) | |
| Additional Capabilities | Other Modalities | Integrated optical microscope and x-ray microscope for alignment |
| Software | Sigray Composition (GUI-based analysis tool) Semiconductor Acquisition Jupyter notebooks available upon request |
Downloads
Brochures and Specification Sheets
Application Notes
Semiconductor Dopants and Residues (such as Ge, Mo2N, Al, etc.) with AttoMap
Contact Us
Interested in how the Sigray AttoMap™ will help your particular application?
For a quotation and to inquire about a demonstration of the system on your particular research interests, please fill out the following inquiry form and we will get back to you within 1-2 business days.