Edax Inc., Mahwah, N.J., introduces a new series of Octane Elite silicon drift detectors, which offer up to 35% better light-element sensitivity and outstanding low-energy performance due to silicon nitride entry windows. Silicon nitride replaces the polymer that has been standard since the inception of SDD technology.
The material properties and durability of silicon nitride enable the detector window to be under 100 nm thick, permitting increased transmission and hence more critical data for materials analysis. In addition to durability, Si3N4 is known for thermal, corrosion, and shock resistance. It is chemically inert, except to certain strong acids in the presence of humidity and temperatures above 140˚C. Neither of these is likely to ever be encountered inside a scanning electron microscope.
While the durability of the window material is an advantage because it allows for the use of more robust and reliable detectors, the true benefits for EDS applications lie elsewhere. The material enables the detector’s windows to be more thinly fabricated, which offers tremendous superiority in terms of sensitivity to X-rays as required for optimal low-voltage analysis. Along with that, the mechanical properties of Si3N4 permit a reduction in the area of the necessary support grid, compared with a polymer window, offering further efficiencies throughout the X-ray energy range and resulting in additional increases in real-world throughput and data collection.
The Octane Elite Series also uses widely praised CUBE technology, which yields high-speed X-ray data processing within a smaller detector device. The impermeable silicon nitride window permits fully tight vacuum encapsulation of the detector module. This allows the detector to operate at colder temperatures, which increases the resolution performance, especially at maximum speeds. The new detectors also offer a standard motorized slide.
“The improvements in low-voltage performance of the Octane Elite detectors are of special interest to the world of materials characterization because decreased accelerating voltage leads to smaller interaction volumes and allows analysis of smaller features and thinner films in today’s nano-world,” comments Frank Cumbo, Global Sales and Marketing Manager at EDAX.
