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

我们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型电子发射效应，开发出一种占地面积更小、功耗更低、成本比典型扫描电子显微镜低得多的系统。我们的目标是开发一种最小可行产品，该产品可以在大气中使用背散射电子探测器以1微米的分辨率可靠地重复成像。这些技术里程碑是根据nserc资助的I2I市场评估阶段采访的公司的反馈而设定的。评估结果表明，微电子和材料制造领域需要AweSEM。这些行业代表着约4.5亿美元的滩头阵地市场机会。75%的受访公司表示，在I2I第一阶段成功完成后，他们愿意在工业环境中测试我们的最低可行产品，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.