The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 25, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 17, 2004
Raymond Wagner, Nuenen, NL;
Gerbert Jeroen Van DE Water, Deil, NL;
Raymond Wagner, Nuenen, NL;
Gerbert Jeroen van de Water, Deil, NL;
FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Abstract
Sample carriers for use in Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEMs) and freely commercially available have the form of a gauze with a strengthening edge. The thickness of these known sample carriers is of the order of magnitude of 20 μm, and is uniform across the entire sample holder. The tiny thickness of these fragile sample carriers makes manipulation difficult. There is a desire to realize automatic introduction and removal of sample carriers in a TEM, seeing as this would make it possible to use the TEM continuously, without human intervention. The invention describes a robust sample carrier whereby—both in the case of manual and automatic manipulation—deformation of and/or damage to the sample carrier is avoided. This is achieved by employing a strengthening edge portion 2 with a thickness 6 larger than the thickness 5 of the middle portion 1 of the sample carrier. The ability to use the sample carrier in analyses in which tilting is important is hereby not impeded.