Phase I: Development of a low-cost scanning electron microscope

我们在UBC的团队正在开发一种紧凑的大气扫描电子显微镜，名为“AweSEM”。我们的系统利用了我们实验室发现的碳纳米材料上的一种新颖的电子发射效应，开发了一种比典型的扫描电子显微镜具有更小的占地面积、更低的功耗和更低的成本的系统。我们这项提议的目标是开发一种最小可行的产品，它可以在大气中以1微米的分辨率强劲和重复地成像，并带有背向散射电子探测器。这些技术里程碑是基于NSERC资助的I2I市场评估阶段接受采访的公司的反馈而设定的。评估的结果表明，在微电子和材料制造领域需要AweSEM。这些行业代表着约4.5亿美元的滩头市场机会。75%的受访公司表示，他们愿意在成功完成I2I阶段1之后，在工业环境中对我们最低可行产品进行Beta测试，以期成为早期采用者。

Our team at UBC is developing a compact, atmospheric scanning electron microscope named "AweSEM". Our system leverages a novel electron emission effect on a carbon nanomaterial that was discovered in our lab to develop a system with a smaller footprint, lower power consumption, and considerably less cost than a typical scanning electron microscope. Our goals for this proposal are to develop a minimal viable product that can image at a resolution of 1 micrometre robustly and repeatably in atmosphere with a backscattered electron detector. These technical milestones were set based on feedback from companies that were interviewed during the NSERC-funded I2I market assessment phase. The results from that assessment indicated a need for AweSEM within the microelectronics and materials manufacturing space. These sectors represent a beachhead market opportunity of ~$450M. 75% of the interviewed companies indicated their willingness to beta-test our minimum viable product in an industrial setting following the successful completion of this I2I phase 1, with a view to becoming an early adopter.