The full team: Maria KONSTANTAKOPOULOU, Matteo GHIDELLI, Marco EZEQUIEL, Philippe LASSON, Andrew Jonathan SMITH and Fabrice GASLAIN

SYNERGIE4 is honored to have installed a probe station from Kleindiek (www.kleindiek.com) for in situ Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) electrical characterization at Dr.Matteo Ghidelli's lab at Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux @LSPM-CNRS, @Université Sorbonne Paris Nord. We are grateful to @Maria Konstantakopoulou and @Marco Ezequiel for their collaboration during the installation.

This station consists of 2 MM3A three-axis nanomanipulators and a PS4 (Prober Shuttle) base equipped with 2 three-axis micromanipulators with low-current probes. The instrument is designed with unique features aimed to probe the microscale electrical properties in situ (inside) SEM, performing electrical measurements at very low currents/voltages with outstanding spatial and electrical resolution.

Technical features and applications fields Microscale electrical characterization in situ SEM: The Kleindiek probe station has been integrated within a ZEISS Gemini 360 SEM @LSPM-CNRS, enabling in situ measurements of electrical properties down to the sub-micrometer scale (<10⁻⁶ m), gathering information about electrical behavior of e.g. grain boundaries, precipitates, and secondary phases.

Macro-scale electrical characterization: The high flexibility of the system enables an independent configuration ex situ (outside the SEM) in standard (4 probes) configuration in order to measure electrical properties at a macroscopic scale.

Material adaptability: the Kleindiek probe station can be used for a large variety of materials including bulk materials, compacted powders, or thin films and it is suitable for a wide variety of heterogeneous materials, including metals, oxides, ceramics, polymers, and semiconductors.

Outlooks: The instrument can be coupled with in situ SEM micromechanical testing (i.e. nanoindentaion) already available @LSPM-CNRS, enabling a cutting-edge multi-physics approach combining mechanical-electrical characterizations.

Overall, the Kleindiek in situ SEM electrical testing station provides critical insights into the local electrical properties of materials and their correlation with microstructural features, such as defects, grain boundaries, phase segregations, etc. This powerful instrument will enable to boost the research in materials science with key implications in the fields of micro- and nano- electronics, defense and energy.

We’re looking forward to assisting with material micro-scale electrical characterizations.