Working Smarter™ with Surface Analytical Techniques

The Working Smarter seminar reviews many surface, bulk, and microanalytical techniques used in high technology industries. This course has been designed to provide engineers and scientists with the information needed to effectively apply sophisticated surface analytical tools and techniques in materials research, process development, failure analysis, and production quality control applications. Attendees will increase their knowledge of analytical methods and their understanding of how these techniques can then be applied most effectively to different technologies, problem solving, or research situations.

The Semiconductor version is primarily focused on semiconductor materials. The General Overview version includes examples from a broader range of industries including semiconductor, optics, glass, solar and more.

The Working Smarter series has been running for over 20 years, and is the leading tutorial seminar on surface and micro-analytical techniques.

In addition to our regularly scheduled seminar dates, we also work with companies to present the Working Smarter course in-house. By having the seminar hosted onsite, companies avoid travel costs for employees, and they can focus the discussion on their particular technical issues and have an open dialogue with the instructor without worrying about competitors hearing the conversation. If you are interested in scheduling your onsite seminar, please contact us at .

Who Should Attend?

Engineers, scientists, technicians, lab managers, production and R&D personnel will increase their knowledge of analytical methods and their understanding of how these techniques can be applied most effectively to different technologies, problem solving, or research situations.

This course will benefit anyone facing materials or materials processing related problems that could be addressed by surface analysis, microanalysis or other materials characterization methods. The experienced professional will gain a new breadth of knowledge in techniques complementary to their core skills, while individuals new to the field will come away with a good overview of the range and application of many powerful techniques.

What You Will Learn:

The best techniques and instrumentation for surface, bulk, and thin film characterization of semiconductor and other materials.
The techniques that are best used in different applications and circumstances.
The basic fundamentals of each technique (i.e. how do they work?)
*Note that the operation of specific instruments is not discussed.
How to better understand the data in order to get the most information from your analysis.
Strengths and limitations of each technique.

Why Take This Seminar?

With the knowledge gained from this seminar, participants will be able to make more informed decisions and choices about which technique to use, thereby improving efficiency and reducing the potential cost of analytical services. EAG will always be available to help you with different analytical approaches.

Course Contents:

An Introduction to Surface, Bulk, and Microanalytical Tools

Microanalytical Techniques

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS)
Focused Ion Beam Imaging (FIB)
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)
Scanning TEM (STEM)
Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES)

Surface Organic Techniques

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS)
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
Raman Spectroscopy
Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

Thin Film Techniques

Accelerator Techniques: RBS, HFS, NRA
Low Energy X-ray Emission Spectrometry (LEXES)
X-ray Reflectivity (XRR)

Fundamentals and Applications of SIMS

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS)

Surface and Trace Metal Analysis Techniques

Vapor Phase Decomposition (VPD)
Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF)
SurfaceSIMS
TOF-SIMS for Surface Metals

Bulk Techniques

Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry (GDMS)
Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled
Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS)
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission
Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (ICP-OES/MS)
Instrumental Gas Analysis (IGA)
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF)
X-ray Diffraction (XRD)

Summary: Selecting the Appropriate Analytical Technique

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