Thin Metallic EM Support Foil to Prevent Specimen Buckling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current electron microscopy specimen supports suffer from specimen movement during imaging due to stress buildup and buckling, leading to degraded image quality and limited throughput in high-resolution structure determination.
Innovation Solution
A metallic foil support with holes having a thickness of less than 50 nm and a hole-to-thickness ratio of 15:1 or less, made from transition metals or degenerately doped silicon, to minimize stress and prevent buckling, ensuring structural stability and uniformity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional carbon or metal foil supports are used, then structural support is provided, but specimen movement and buckling occur due to stress buildup
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the foil support by reducing thickness to less than 50 nm and controlling the hole-to-thickness ratio to 15:1 or less. This parameter optimization minimizes stress buildup in the ice layer while maintaining sufficient structural support, preventing buckling and specimen movement during imaging
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite material structures combining metallic foils with specific hole patterns and ice layers. The metallic foil provides mechanical support while the optimized hole geometry and thin ice layer reduce stress accumulation, creating a composite system that eliminates buckling without sacrificing specimen stability
2Stability of the object's composition
If thicker foils are used to prevent buckling, then structural stability improves, but image resolution degrades due to increased scattering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the foil thickness parameter to a specific range (less than 50 nm) that balances two competing requirements: thin enough to minimize electron scattering and maintain high image resolution, yet thick enough to provide adequate structural support when combined with the optimized hole-to-thickness ratio of 15:1 or less
3Productivity
If smaller hole diameters are used to increase throughput, then imaging capacity improves, but support strength decreases leading to buckling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the geometric parameters by reducing hole diameter while simultaneously optimizing the hole-to-thickness ratio to 15:1 or less. This allows smaller holes (increasing throughput) without compromising support strength, as the reduced thickness compensates for the smaller hole size maintaining adequate structural integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses the strength-throughput trade-off by introducing a new dimensional parameter: the hole-to-thickness ratio. By controlling this ratio rather than just hole diameter, the system can accommodate smaller holes for higher throughput while maintaining support strength through optimized thickness, effectively adding a degree of freedom to the design space
4Strength
If larger hole diameters are used to maintain support strength, then buckling is prevented, but throughput is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes both hole diameter and thickness parameters simultaneously, controlling their ratio to 15:1 or less. This allows the system to use smaller hole diameters (increasing throughput) while compensating with reduced thickness to maintain adequate support strength, reversing the conventional approach of using larger holes
Data Source
AI summary
A support for an electron microscopy sample, the support comprising a metallic foil having one or more holes therethrough wherein thickness of the metallic foil is less than 50 nm and/or the mean linear intercept grain size is 50 nm or less, wherein the ratio of the diameter of each hole to the thickness of the metallic foil is 15:1 or less, and wherein the metallic foil consists of either (a) one or more metals selected from transition metals, aluminium and beryllium, or an alloy thereof; or (b) degenerately doped silicon wherein the dopant element is selected from boron, aluminium, boron and arsenic at a concentration of 1020 atoms/cm3 or higher.