Making Fully Integrated EDS and EBSD Affordable and User-Friendly

Making Fully Integrated EDS and EBSD

A ordable and User-Friendly
From COXEM Co. Ltd. Jul 9 2024
Reviewed by Aimee Molineux

insights from industry

Daniel Goran
EBSD Senior Product Manager
Bruker

In our latest interview, AZoM speaks with Daniel Goran, Senior Product Manager for EBSD
at Bruker, about making fully integrated EDS and EBSD affordable and easy to use by
combining COXEM’s new EM-40 Tabletop SEM with Bruker’s QUANTAX ED-XS system.

Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about

your background in EBSD?
I am a metallurgical engineer with a PhD in severe plastic deformation of FCC metals. I
have been using EBSD since 2003, first in academia and research environments and later
in the industrial environment. I have authored/co-authored multiple peer-reviewed papers
and patents focused on EBSD-related methods and solutions.

At Bruker, I am responsible for defining the EBSD product roadmap. I am also deeply
involved in various R&D projects with internal and external teams. I represent Germany as
an EBSD expert in the ISO committee and work on various EBSD-related projects.

Can you explain what EBSD is and why this capability

is significant?
EBSD is a powerful SEM-based technique that provides the local crystallographic
orientation and phase with a spatial resolution down to a few tens of nanometers. This
makes it a valuable tool for researchers and engineers working on understanding the
relationship between the properties of crystalline materials and their internal structure, with
the aim of refining processing to obtain maximum performance of final components.

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Please could you give a brief overview of the COXEM

EM-40 Tabletop SEM?
The EM-40 is the ideal platform for performing both EDS and EBSD analysis due to its
flexibility and suite of advanced features. It has a magnification range of 13 – 250,000x, a
large depth of field, and accelerating voltages from 1 kV to 30 kV, selectable in 1 kV steps.
These, coupled with 4 user-selectable apertures, assure optimum conditions for high-
quality imaging.

Powered by NanoStation 5.0 software, the EM-40 includes a suite of automated functions
that simplify operations and help novice users achieve consistent results. Advanced image
analysis tools, like line profile analysis, help more accurately determine particle size when
working at the nanoscale.

The EM-40 with the ED-XS system installed. Image Credit: COXEM

Bruker designed the QUANTAX ED-XS system including

the eFlash XS compact EBSD detector specifically for
tabletop electron microscopes. Can you explain how
this system integrates with COXEM’s EM-40?

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Conventional EBSD detectors have two major characteristics that make them unsuitable for
tabletop SEMs. First, from a technical perspective, they are very heavy and bulky. Second,
and most important, a conventional EBSD detector is significantly more expensive than a
tabletop SEM.

When designing eFlash XS, the EBSD part of the QUANTAX ED-XS package, we had to
find solutions to all these challenging points. The eFlash XS EBSD detector and the
XFlash® 7 EDS detector integrate perfectly on a single port on the right-hand side of the
EM-40. To improve the user experience and system performance, Bruker and COXEM have
designed a pre-tilted sample holder that offers both ideal sample-detector geometry and
safe and easy operation. Last but not least, and to the best of my knowledge, the EM-40 is
the only tabletop SEM featuring “dynamic focus”, a capability that is required when
analyzing highly tilted samples, i.e. the EBSD geometry.

The eFlash XS EBSD Detector. Image Credit: Bruker

Why do users need EBSD on their tabletop SEMs? What

is the significance for users?
Whether it is a routine EBSD measurement or a simple check of sample preparation quality,
EBSD on a tabletop SEM provides the same kind of result as EBSD on a conventional SEM
but at a fraction of the cost. Since EBSD has become a ubiquitous technique, having
access to it on a tabletop SEM will help increase the rate at which research and technology
advances simply because more people will have easier access to it.

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EBSD is known for being a knowledge-intensive

technique. How has combining the EM-40 and
QUANTAX ED-XS simplified the analysis process?
EBSD is indeed a knowledge-intensive technique, but so is driving a car compared to
walking. Many people choose to learn how to drive simply because it comes with benefits,
e.g. comfort and mobility improvements. In our case, we just made the option to learn “how
to drive a car” easily accessible to more people. The combination of EM-40 with QUANTAX
ED-XS detectors will offer an affordable and low lab space-consuming solution to managers
of electron microscopy centers, which will, ultimately, result in a higher amount of EBSD
and EDS-equipped SEMs available for students to practice and improve their skills on.

How has the EM-40, when combined with the QUANTAX

ED-XS, lowered labs' investment costs without
compromising performance?
A conventional integrated EBSD and EDS system may cost two or three times more than a
tabletop SEM. This is the reason why, until now, most EBSD systems were installed on
expensive FE-SEMs and, therefore, could only be purchased when generous budgets were
available. QUANTAX ED-XS is a package of hardware and software that offers most
capabilities of a conventional integrated EBSD & EDS system, at a fraction of the cost.

The affordability factor gets even bigger when we consider the price difference between an
FE-SEM and a tabletop SEM like the EM-40. While there is no compromise in terms of data
quality and integrity, the user will have to trade a bit of convenience, e.g. lack of motorized
insertion/retraction on the EBSD detector, for the great benefits that come with affordability.

What are some of the primary applications that the EM-

40, when combined with the QUANTAX ED-XS EBSD &
EDS system, can be used for?
Pretty much all routine EBSD and EDS measurements can be done on the EM-40 without
compromising data quality and integrity. The combination of EM-40 with QUANTAX ED-XS
system is a dependable solution for many applications. Here are the most common:

1. Grain size and shape distribution

2. Quantitative analysis of microstructures using various subsetting options
3. Area fraction of deformed vs. recrystallized grains
4. Grain boundary analysis

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5. Phase identification and distribution

6. Orientation distribution / crystallographic texture
7. Qualitative and quantitative elemental mapping

Where can readers find more information?

What is EBSD?: https://www.bruker.com/de/landingpages/bna/technology/what-is-
ebsd.html
QUANTAX ED-XS website: www.bruker.com/quantax-edxs
COXEM website: https://www.coxem.com/

About Daniel Goran

Daniel is Sr. Product Manager EBSD at Bruker Nano Analytics in Berlin Germany. He has
authored/co-authored multiple peer-reviewed papers and patents focused on EBSD related
methods and solutions. He is also representing Germany as an EBSD expert in the ISO
committee working on various EBSD related projects.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the interviewee and do not
necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited (T/A) AZoNetwork, the owner and
operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and Conditions of use
of this website.

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COXEM Co. Ltd.

Address

#201, Migun Techno World 1-cha, 199, Techno2-ro,

Yuseong-gu
Daejeon, 34025
South Korea

Phone: +82 42 861 1686

Fax: +82 42 861 1689

Visit Website

COXEM is a leading manufacturer of Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) utilizing

technology developed with KRISS, the Korean Research Institute for Science and
Standards.

COXEM’s flagship products are currently the EM 40 and EM-30N Tabletop SEMs and the
CX-200plus full-size SEM. A novel STEM detector is also available that delivers quality
TEM images in the tabletop SEM series and the CX-200plus. Coxem has also recently
released a new Cross Section Ion Beam Polisher (CP-8000+) that utilizes an argon ion
beam, providing clean, accurate cross-sections, making it an ideal solution for preparing
specimens for analysis in WDS, SEM, EBSD and EDS.

These new products revolutionize the capabilities of entry to mid-level SEM analysis at
affordable costs. With on-going investments in research and product development, COXEM
is the fastest growing supplier of Scanning Electron Microscopes in the scientific market.

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