Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS)

EDS identifies the elemental composition of materials for all elements with an atomic number greater than boron. Most elements are detected at concentrations of order 0.1%.

Applications include:

Materials evaluation and identification

	Contaminants
	Elemental diffusion profiles
	Glassivation phosphorus content
	Multiple spot analysis of areas from 1 micron to 10 cm in diameter
	Polymers - Filler identification and chemistry

Failure analysis

	Contamination identification
	Unknowns identification
	Stringer location and identification

Quality control screening

	Material verification
	Plating specification and certification

Principle of Operation

As the electron beam is scanned across the sample surface, it generates X-ray fluorescence from the atoms in its path. The energy of each X-ray photon is characteristic of the element which produced it. The EDS microanalysis system collects the X-rays, sorts and plots them by energy, and automatically identifies and labels the elements responsible for the peaks in this energy distribution.

The EDS data are typically compared with either known or computer-generated standards to produce a full quantitative analysis showing the sample composition.

Data output is either this element analysis, the original spectrum showing the number of X-rays collected at each energy, or maps of distributions of elements over areas of interest.

Energy Dispersive Capability

In addition to four Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometers (WDS) our Electron Microprobe is fitted with a high-quality Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS). EDS provides a Rapid Qualitative and Semi-Quantitative chemical analysis on just about any material. EDS Example

What is EDS?

Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) is a standard procedure for identifying and quantifying elemental composition of sample areas as small as a few cubic micrometers. The characteristic X-rays are produced when a material is bombarded with electrons in an electron beam instrument, such as a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Detection of these x-rays can be accomplished by an energy dispersive spectrometer, which is a solid state device that discriminates among X-ray energies