Microscopy Techniques in the Failure Analysis of Optoelectronics
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Meeting Material Purity Requirements with GDMS
Unknown or unwanted chemical impurities in materials can be problematic for both users as well as manufacturers. They can disrupt supply chain, impact performance and reliability, cause delays and increase costs. Knowing this, manufacturers seek out higher purity materials to eliminate these potential issues. On the other hand, intentionally added elements into materials can introduce energy levels previously not assessable by electrons, photons, phonons, atoms, and molecules, thus creating vast opportunities for discovering new phenomena for properly tailoring. Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GDMS) is a powerful full survey analysis tool for chemical purity evaluations of advanced materials.
What is GDMS?
GDMS is a high-resolution mass spectrometric technique, which is based on glow discharge atomization/ionization source combined with sector-field mass analyzer. It is a very sensitive and robust direct sampling analytical tool for monitoring elemental compositions
and impurities in materials down to sub-ppm mass fraction levels. It can scan up to 75 elements in all solid inorganic materials with very high sensitivity across the entire periodic table.
Full survey analysis by GDMS can provide critical data in industries like aerospace, semiconductor, telecommunications, automotive, lighting/LEDs, optics, and thermal spray coatings. Ideal uses include purity evaluations of advanced materials (i.e. metals, alloys, electronic materials, etc.) and chemical analysis up to 99.99999% (7N), depth specific trace and ultra-trace distribution measurements, traceability or identifications of unknowns from limited amount of samples and chemical characterization of particulate materials, surface contaminants and engineering coatings.
Advantages of using GDMS Analysis at EAG
At EAG, our scientists are skilled and knowledgeable in serving very broad industry sectors requiring high purity materials. EAG uses multi-disciplinary analytical expertise (including GDMS) to provide support for the full product life cycle including product innovation and improvement, investigation and troubleshooting, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, manufacturing and supply chain support and consultation and litigation.
In working with many clients EAG scientists developed its own proprietary test protocols, hardware accessories and software packages for data processing to provide analytical services. There are several important features to this proprietary technology including (1) traceability (2) calculations linked to ASTM protocols for established ASTM methods (3) a built-in mass interference calculator and (4) an advanced data reduction software. With over 25 instruments of different generations and source configurations, EAG scientists wanted to minimize differing data variables so they created a platform that could support all GDMS models to ensure a high level of data consistency to clients. The software has many features that are not available in commercial equivalents. Combined, these different tools provide a platform to ensure uniformity of analysis across all of EAG’s sites by ensuring that methods are tied to ASTM, ISO, Nadcap or Established Work Instructions.
If you need to identify materials in your production line, if you have an unknown sample and need it identified or if you want to do an overall test for purity then EAG is the right partner to help you get the job done. We are a global leader in materials testing services with a broad range of instruments and a highly experienced staff. Contact us today to learn more about what we can offer with GDMS analysis and how we can be your trusted partner during your product life cycle.
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