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2007
2006
2005
20042003200220012000
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12/08/2005
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Materials Research Society Fall Meeting, Boston, MA |
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Representatives from both ION-TOF
USA and ION-TOF GmbH recently attended the Materials Research Society 2005 Fall Meeting in the Hynes Convention Center,
Boston, MA.
Meeting highlights can be seen at the MRS
web page,
but included a fashion show entitled, 'Wearables Runway – A Revolution in Textiles' that highlighted clothing made possible by Materials Research.
We would
like to thank everyone for stopping by the
ION-TOF booth and the scientific poster
presented by Dr. Nathan Havercroft.
The ION-TOF booth at the MRS 2005 Fall
Meeting in Boston, MA.
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11/10/2005
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American Vacuum Society 52nd International
Symposium and Exhibition, Boston, MA |
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Recently representatives from both ION-TOF
USA and ION-TOF GmbH attended the 52nd
Annual AVS International Symposium and
Exhibition in the Hynes Convention Center,
Boston, MA.
The symposium which ran from October 30th through November 4th has a large
number of concurrent scientific sessions discussing the latest scientific
breakthroughs. With over 2,000 attendees this years symposium was on a level
with the previous show in Anaheim, CA.
The Exhibition which ran from October
31st through November 2nd is one of the
world's major trade shows for surface
analysis and vacuum technology exhibits.
There were over 160 companies displaying
their latest products and services. We would
like to thank everyone for stopping by the
ION-TOF booth, it was great to see all the
old faces as well as some new ones too.
The ION-TOF booth at the 52nd Annual AVS
Symposium in Boston, MA.
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11/09/2005
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TOF-SIMS Training Courses
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ION-TOF GmbH are currently running training courses in
the operation of TOF-SIMS instruments and in
data interpretation. These are sponsored by
the European Union under the FP6 research
program, although the course content is
the responsibility of ION-TOF GmbH. The
courses are open to anyone in the European
Union who has recently joined a TOF-SIMS
laboratory or received a TOF-SIMS
instrument.
We decided that some hands-on training was necessary and so we are limiting each
group of trainees to six people. Dr Derk Rading, our Senior Application
Scientist, one of whose normal roles include customer training, was the ideal
choice as the course organizer and principle teacher. After an introductory
seminar on the first day, two days are spent in a TOF.SIMS 5 laboratory learning
to use the instrument itself, followed by a second seminar on the fourth day to
study the data evaluation software.
The final formal event is to present each trainee with a certificate of
completion of the course, which we hope will serve them well in the future.
For the informal events, on the final evening we make a short tour of Muenster
before a dinner in the "Pfefferkorn" restaurant in the historical center of
Muenster.
The first two courses took place in October 2005. Our first group was a European
mixture from France, Italy and Germany. The second course was attended by
trainees from Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Anyone who would like to participate in these training courses, please contact
Claudia Schirdewan for further details or to have their names added to the
waiting list.
For anyone wishing to organize training in North America please contact us at sales@iontofusa.com
The trainees of our two courses, mentally saturated with technical information,
but still smiling.
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10/19/2005
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J.
Am. Soc. Mass. Spectrom. publishes a
biological TOF-SIMS paper
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We are pleased to note that on the front
cover of the October issue of the Journal of
the American Society for Mass Spectroscopy
there is an ion image, taken with a TOF-SIMS
IV fitted with a Bismuth source, showing the
distribution of three different lipids in a
section of a mouse brain (D. Touboul, F.
Kollmer, E. Niehuis, A. Brunelle, O.
Laprévote, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 16
(2005) 1608-1618)
Three of the authors work at the Institut de Chimie des Substances
Naturelles, CNRS, Av. de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France. This
laboratory is a very experienced MALDI laboratory, and Alain Brunelle, a
Physicist turned cell biologist, together with his biologically trained
colleagues, saw the potential of TOF-SIMS as a complimentary technique to MALDI.
Their justification and enthusiasm was sufficient enough for their organization
to buy a TOF-SIMS from us, and they continue to carry out innovative work
applying TOF-SIMS to cell chemistry. An increasing number of papers from this
group and others are being published showing results for biological and
pharmaceutical applications, as a consequence of the introduction of cluster ion
sources to the TOF-SIMS technique.
The Journal web-site advises that reprint requests should be addressed to Dr.
Alain Brunelle at the CNRS.
Anyone who is interested in exploring the possibilities of TOF-SIMS for
biological applications should e-mail us via the contact page on this web-site.
Overlay of negative secondary ion images
obtained from a rat brain section under the
irradiation of Bi3+
primary ions. red : m/z 255 + 283, green:
m/z 892, blue: m/z 771
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10/19/2005
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SIMS XV: Conference and Exhibition
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The SIMS community is fortunate to have its
own international and regional Conferences,
unlike the majority of the other surface
analytical techniques. The main event is the
International SIMS Conference, biennial,
which locates in turn in Europe, Asia and
North America. Mid September saw the
International Meeting, SIMS XV, being held
in Manchester, UK, which was attended by 400
delegates from many countries.
A main theme of SIMS XV was the application of cluster sources, liquid metal
Bismuth and C60, and in particular the use and potential for biological
molecular imaging. TASCON, our sister company, showed 3D molecular mapping of
cells for the first time at a SIMS Conference, and ION-TOF demonstrated the
versatility of the cluster Bismuth source for all TOF-SIMS applications. We had
many visitors to our Exhibition stand asking for information about cluster
sources. Those who already possess a TOF-SIMS, however equipped only with a
mono-atomic Gallium source, were very keen to know the price of the upgrade to a
cluster Bismuth source. Bismuth has become the source of first choice for new
TOF-SIMS customers.
If you want the details of the very significant advantages of Bismuth over
other sources, please use our contact page on this web-site.
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07/01/2005
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TASCON grows and broadens its analytical
expertise.
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Founded in 1997 ION-TOF’s sister company for
analytical service, TASCON, has achieved
constant growth. Offering high quality
analytical service and consulting for all
kind of surface and sub-surface analytical
tasks, TASCON has become a trusted partner
for many European companies. The enlargement
of the TASCON analytical team at the
beginning of 2005 has further broadened its
analytical expertise. Today you will find
physicists, chemists, biologists,
biochemists and geologists working
successfully in close co-operation to solve
customer problems.
Last year TASCON took delivery of a new 300mm sample size instrument, the
TOF-SIMS 5-300, and cluster beam ion sources. The 300mm instrument allows them
to offer better service to the 300mm semiconductor industry, and consequently
increase their depth profiling business. The cluster beam sources have
dramatically increased efficiency for molecular species giving sub-micron
spatial resolution for surface mapping and better spectroscopy, and many
customers have demanded more of such analyses, providing a big new business area
for TASCON. The combination of depth profiling and surface mapping provides a
means of 3D rendering, and these are ideal analyses for overnight automated
operation. So TASCON’s customers, in addition to the traditional static SIMS
analyses are increasingly asking for more surface mapping, depth profiling and
3D rendering
Originally equipped with Gold cluster beam sources, for over a year TASCON has
also been the test laboratory for the new Bismuth Cluster ion source, and the
new source is now being used for nearly all their analytical applications. The
Managing Director, Birgit Hagenhoff, says, “ the faster data acquisition using
Bismuth, compared to Gold, has made a significant improvement in TASCON’s
output, and the cluster sources have given the company lots more market
opportunities”
TASCON’s reputation for providing sound and thoroughly worked analytical reports
is becoming more apparent to a discerning market. Often important design or
production decisions are based on the results. TASCON will surely keep growing.
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05/18/2005
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First TOF.SIMS 5 in South Africa
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We are very pleased to announce our first
order from South Africa. A TOF.SIMS 5 will
be delivered to the CSIR (Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research,
www.nml.csir.co.za
towards the end of 2005. It will be
installed in the Department of Science and
Technology for Nanotechnology Capacity
Building. Contacts are
Martin van
Staden, and
Thembela
Hillie. The applications will be many
and various, since the CSIR is a national
facility.
The CSIR is the largest community and
industry directed scientific and
technological research, development and
implementation organization in Africa and
currently undertakes approximately 10 per
cent of all research and development work on
the continent.
It was established by the South African
Government in 1945, and by providing
technology solutions, plays an integral part
in the development of South Africa. Much of
its research and development, and technology
transfer is market-driven, to support the
economy and improve the quality of life of
all South Africans.
The CSIR's staff complement of over 3 300
include scientists, engineers,
technologists, technicians, sociologists and
support staff and are at the forefront of
research and implementation as part of the
global scientific and technological
community.
Less than a decade ago, the CSIR set out to
transform itself in the technology partner
of the people of South Africa. From being
almost completely dependant on government
funding before the restructuring of the
organization in 1987, when its Parliamentary
Grant income represented 70 per cent of
total income, the CSIR has demonstrated its
ability over the past eight years to
steadily grow its external income as a
contract research organization and now
derives close to 60% of external revenue
from the private sector. The turnover for
the CSIR group was in excess of R850 million
in the financial year ending March 2001.
CSIR technical enquiries: +27 12 841-2000
We are sure that the TOF.SIMS 5 will make a
contribution, especially assisting South
African industry with surface analysis
applications.
If you would like more information from
ION-TOF, please contact our local agent
Richard Holton at Vacutec, Tel +27 11
476-4202,
vacutec@ iafrica.com
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05/18/2005
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SIMS Workshop 2005
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Correlation
analysis of a
photographic
film crystal
with
Bi3++
showing a
lateral
resolution of
100 nm
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The Annual SIMS Workshop was held at the
Hilton Head Marriot Hotel in South Carolina.
Attendance of about 100 makes this meeting
the third biggest dedicated SIMS event in
the calendar after the biennial SIMS
Conference and SIMS Europe. A wide variety
of SIMS topics were presented, but the major
topic was the continued development and
exploration of cluster primary ion sources,
in which naturally ION-TOF was prominent.
An examination of our sales statistics
before the meeting showed that the Bi liquid
metal ion gun has now become the analytical
source of first choice for TOF-SIMS, and
results presented by users at the Workshop
confirmed this.
The developers are very excited by the
possibilities of the C60 ion
source and in particular some interesting
results from depth profiling organic
materials were shown.
Our Managing Director, Ewald Niehuis, gave a
review on the recent history and present
performance of the various sources available
( Ga, Au, Bi, C60........) for
both organic and inorganic analysis. This
was extremely well received, because the
development and new uses of the cluster
sources has been so rapid that TOF-SIMS
analysts have had difficulty keeping up with
the latest information. In particular he
presented a slide showing the history of
sales of the various analytical sources. It
clearly shows the preference of the market
for the Bismuth source as a first choice. It
is early days yet for C60, but
the current technological limitations are
keeping the sales low.
For more information, please contact us by
e-mail
sales@iontof.com.
Market demand for Ion Sources in per cent.
Please note that all ION-TOF instruments
sold so far in 2005 are equipped with a
Bismuth source.
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01/24/2005
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2005 Worldwide Chinese Secondary Ion Mass
Spectrometry & Related Topics Symposium
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Dr. Derk Rading
giving a talk
during the
symposium
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The Worldwide Chinese Secondary Ion Mass
Spectrometry & Related Topics Symposium was
successfully held in Hsinchu/Taiwan from the
15th to the 19th of January 2005. About one
hundred delegates attended, mainly from
Taiwan and mainland China, showing the
growing interest in SIMS techniques in the
region. Focusing on the characterization of
semiconductor devices, photo-electronic
material, nano-scaled materials and
bio-materials the symposium provided a
welcome opportunity for the exchange of
ideas and experience in the field of SIMS.
The plenary lectures were given by by two of
the leading academics concerned with the
development and application of SIMS over
many years, Prof. Benninghoven of the
University of Muenster/Germany and Prof.
Vandervorst of IMEC/Belgium.
The ION-TOF SIMS papers were presented by Dr
Derk Rading, our Applications Specialist,
who talked about the latest developments in
TOF-SIMS, and our local agent Mr H W Wong of
HI-TECH Instruments gave a paper in Chinese.
Subsequent questions, both at the time of
the lectures, and person to person during
breaks and mealtimes, showed a strong level
of interest in TOF-SIMS by the delegates.
We hope that the organizers will continue
with this Symposium and are looking forward
to the next Chinese SIMS Symposium.
Attendees of the Worldwide Chinese Secondary
Ion Mass Spectrometry & Related Topics
Symposium. In the group photograph Prof.
Benninghoven can be seen in the middle,
flanked by Prof. Ling (left) and Prof.
Cha (right).
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01/18/2005
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Do
TOF-SIMS users live longer?
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International
Award for
Livable
Communities
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The ION-TOF employees have always considered
that the use of TOF-SIMS will have a
positive influence on your life. Of course,
there was no real evidence of a link between
the technique and happy living, but the
spirit inside the company was always a
strong indication.
Last autumn the City of Münster won the
international award for Livable Communities
(LivCom). This award is the world’s only
Competition for local communities that
focuses on environmental management and the
creation of livable communities. The
objective of the LivCom award is to
encourage best practice, innovation and
leadership in providing a vibrant,
environmentally sustainable community that
improves the quality of life.
Following the award, the city of Münster
launched a marketing campaign explaining
which criteria had lead to winning the
price. One poster of this campaign caught
the eyes of the ION-TOF team immediately,
officially confirming the strong impact of
our TOF-SIMS instruments on a positive way
of life. It shows a picture through the
sample chamber window of our TOF-SIMS
instruments. We will follow up this new idea
and hope that your instrument might
influence your life in a positive way as
well. If you do not have your own instrument
yet, why don’t you visit our information
request site?
Happy and successful New Year 2005!
The ION-TOF team
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