[3dem] Vacuum (carbon) coating systems

[duncan.sousa at rcn.com]

Dear Colleagues, 

The Biological Science Imaging Resource at FSU is looking to buy a new vacuum coating system. It will primarily be used for making thin carbon for TEM, but we would also like it for rotary shadowing and sputter coating for SEM applications as well. Any advice on current systems would be appreciated. One warning I've had is that switching between SEM sputter coating and carbon evaporation may not be ideal, but I don't know how problematic it may be. I have listed a few systems we are considering below (as well as some comments on coating systems from 2012 at the bottom). 

Cressington Systems: 
328UHR Ultra High Resolution EM Coating System 
208C High Vacuum Turbo Carbon Coater 
208HR High Resolution Sputter Coater for FE-SEM 
http://www.tedpella.com/cressington_html/Cressington-Introduction.htm 

EMS Systems: 
EMS150TES 
http://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/products/equipment/turbo_evaporator.aspx 

Edwards System: 
HHV Auto306 
http://www.hhvltd.com/html/p_auto306.html 


Sincerely, 
Duncan 
__________________________________
Duncan Sousa, Ph. D. 
BSIR Coordinator 
Department of Biological Science
Florida State University
89 Chieftan Way, Rm 119
Tallahassee, Fl. 32306 



Answer 1 

We bought the Cresington 208C carbon evaporator about a year ago. 

http://www.cressington.com/product_208c.html 

We are quite happy with the system. It is reliable and easy to operate. 
We also bought the thickness monitor although we do not find it very 
useful. We often trust better our traditional method of folding a piece 
of filter paper to cash a white shadow that does not get cover by 
carbon. 

The glow discharge accessory is pretty convenient, fast and easy to 
use. If budget allows I would recommend to purchase the system with the 
dry vacuum pumping system comprised of the turbo pump and a Dry Scroll 
Pump. It will make your system completely oil free and will prevent oil 
mist contamination of your grids. 

Answer 2 

We also bought the Cressington carbon coater 208 recently and I can 
fully support Joaquins statement. We have it also with the thickness 
monitor but also think that it is not essential to have it. We don't 
have the glow discharge from that company so I can not judge on that. 

Answer 3 

We have many happy customers using the EMS 150 Series of Coaters. It is 
a very modern and flexible instrument for a good value. You can buy it 
as a rotary- or turbo-pumped system, with carbon-rod and/or carbon-fiber 
source. It is possible to upgrade it with Sputter-, Evaporation-, 
Aperture-Cleaning- and Glow-Discharge inserts. It always uses the same 
base system, vacuum and control unit, therefore it is very flexible and 
favorable. 

What would you like to coat? - For high-purity carbon, as used for 
coating grids, the turbo-pumped, high-vacuum system is a must. We 
recommend using a good two to four stage membrane pump as roughing pump. 
It is clean, silent, basically maintenance-free, very reliable and cost 
efficient. Coating just for conductivity is not a big issue and a rotary 
pumped system can be used. 

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