Technical assistance helps put new microscope cleaning system on the market

South Bay Technology
San Clemente, CA

South Bay Technology's new PC-150 plasma cleaning system

With technical assistance from Argonne, South Bay Technology has commercialized a cleaning system that minimizes and, in some cases, eliminates contamination of inorganic specimens for scanning, transmission, scanning transmission, and analytical electron microscopy (SEM, TEM, STEM, and AEM). The new method uses reactive plasma gas to simultaneously clean the specimen and specimen stage.

The technology for South Bay's new PC-150 was developed by Argonne and sublicensed to South Bay. The company knew what its new product could do, but needed a high-resolution electron microscope to quantify the information. Through Argonne's Technical Services Program, South Bay had access not only to such a microscope, but to the Argonne scientist who developed the plasma cleaning technique.

The company estimates a $450,000 increase in revenues over the next year due to the introduction of the PC-150 and related products. "As a small, family-owned company, a $450,000 increase in sales is rather significant," says David Henriks, Vice President of South Bay. "It means new jobs and provides the means to expand our R&D facilities."

Argonne's Technical Services Program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Laboratory Technology Research Program (Office of Energy Research).

"The bottom line is that the Argonne Technical Services Program made it possible for us to transfer Argonne technology and develop it into an effective and marketable product. We are confident that the PC-150 Plasma Cleaner will become an industry standard product."--David Henriks, Vice President, South Bay Technology

Working with Argonne

Argonne has many types of contractual agreements to meet the needs and interests of industry, state and local governments, federal agencies and other organizations.

For More Information

For more information, contact Argonne's Office of Technology Transfer (800-627-2596, partners@anl.gov).