HILLSBORO, Ore., June 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FEI Company announced that it has received U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contracts for four Titan(TM) scanning/transmission electron microscopes (S/TEMs) developed as part of the TEAM (Transmission Electron Aberration- Corrected Microscope) project announced in November 2004. The goal of the collaborative TEAM project is to build the highest resolution S/TEM in the world, capable of direct observation and analysis of individual nanostructures at an unprecedented resolution of 0.5 Angstrom -- approximately one-third the size of a carbon atom -- a key dimension for atomic level research.
The first TEAM Titan is expected to ship this month to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. A second Titan will be sent to CEOS (the TEAM partner that develops both the spherical (Cs) and the chromatic (Cc) aberration correctors for the project) where it will be fitted with a Cc corrector before shipping to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The third and fourth Titans attaining 0.5 Angstrom resolution in TEM and STEM mode and 0.1 eV energy resolution, will ship to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2007 and 2008, respectively, where they will be operated as the temporary TEAM 0.5 and the final TEAM I user instruments within the National Center for Electron Microscopy.
Aberration-corrected electron microscopy technology is at the heart of the TEAM microscopes. The 0.5-Angstrom resolution of these advanced S/TEM systems provide tighter, brighter beams, yielding a stronger signal, higher image contrast, greater analytical sensitivity and unprecedented spatial resolution. The successful development and integration of these unique aberration correctors deliver the ultimate view of the atomic world.
"We are very pleased to have reached this important milestone in the TEAM project. The TEAM partners are eager to take delivery of the Titan columns and begin their rigorous programs of testing, alignment and optimization. As the technical goals of this project are coming within reach, the prospect of using these extraordinary capabilities to explore new territory in the nanoworld is creating a great sense of anticipation in the scientific community," says TEAM's project director Uli Dahmen.
"We are extremely proud to be delivering the TEAM project systems," commented Ray Link, FEI's acting chief executive officer and CFO. "These highly stable systems, featuring the aberration corrected operation of our ground-breaking Titan S/TEM will provide scientists at TEAM national laboratories with new capabilities as they advance their research in a variety of areas. The TEAM project represents one of the finest technical collaborations ever undertaken."
Beyond the resolution heretofore unattainable on a commercially-available system, one of the greatest benefits of the Titan platform is that it provides important flexibility for future development of component upgrades. Thus, researchers and industrial users will be able to easily and continuously obtain optimum performance from their system.
About FEI
FEI's Tools for Nanotech(TM), featuring focused ion- and electron-beam technologies, deliver 3D characterization, analysis and modification capabilities with resolution down to the sub-Angstrom level and provide innovative solutions for customers working in NanoBiology, NanoResearch and NanoElectronics. With R&D centers in North America and Europe, and sales and service operations in more than 50 countries around the world, FEI is bringing the nanoscale within the grasp of leading researchers and manufacturers and helping to turn some of the biggest ideas of this century into reality. More information can be found on the FEI website at: http://www.fei.com/.
About TEAM:
The Department of Energy's electron beam micro-characterization centers are leading the development of advanced aberration corrected electron microscopes in user facilities and are providing the necessary infrastructure to make this instrumentation broadly available to the scientific user community. As a joint development project of five different electron microscopy efforts at Argonne, Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratories-the first TEAM microscope will be installed at NCEM (The National Center for Electron Microscopy, operated as part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). For more information visit: http://ncem.lbl.gov/team3.htm and http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2004/MSD041112.html.
About CEOS:
CEOS (Corrected Electron Optical Systems) stands for advanced aberration correctors for various charged particle lenses. The company, which was founded 8 years ago in Heidelberg/Germany by Dr. M. Haider and Dr. J. Zach, concentrates on the research and development of highly sophisticated electron optical components. For more information: http://www.ceos-gmbh.de/
This news release contains forward-looking statements that include statements about potential product development and future shipments of the products. Factors that could affect these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to changes to or cancellation of the project; the inability of FEI, its suppliers or project partners to make the technology advances required for the project to achieve anticipated results; problems arising during execution of the project that delay it or cause results to vary from the anticipated results; unforeseen technology challenges; and failure of a key supplier or project partner. Please also refer to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information on these factors and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
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