Cressington 108 Sputter Coater

Nonconductive samples in the electron microscope will build up charge on the surface, reducing image quality. One way to reduce charge surface charging is to coat the sample with a conductive material to give the electrons a path to leave the sample. Sputter coating with gold is one method to achieve this. Sputter coating uses ionized argon to vaporize gold atoms from a target and deposit them in a thin layer onto a sample. The IQ Center is home to a Cressington 108 Sputter Coater. A separate, dedicated coater avoids any contamination issues and delivers high quality, high purity sample coatings.

The Cressington 108 Sputter Coater has fully variable current control, digital process timer with "pause", variable height specimen table, hinged top-plate and o-ring sealed vacuum chamber. The current controller allows independent choice of sputter current and argon pressure. Coverage and grain size are optimized for any specimen.