Investor's Business Daily, June 29th, 2007
A new microscope offers a glimpse of the future of nanotechnology research. At least, that's the hope of the microscope's maker, FEI.
The Hillsboro, Ore., company last week started selling its Phenom microscope, which it bills as the first affordable and easy-to-use scanning electron microscope. True, the Phenom costs $72,000, but that's roughly a third the typical cost of most electron microscopes, FEI FEIC says. And that's low enough to make the device more accessible to more colleges and corporate labs.
"This puts an immensely powerful image technology into everybody's hands," said FEI Chief Executive Don Kania. "It's a tool that has the ability to get students really excited about science."
It's also billed as being strong enough to magnify objects up to 20,000 times their size. Such scanning electron microscopes use beams of electrons to capture images, rather than beams of light. That makes them much more powerful than the more common type of microscope, called an optical microscope.
Phenom users can view objects at a resolution of 30 nanometers across, or just 30 billionths of a meter.
Users don't peer through any eyehole. Instead, the device uses a simple touch-screen interface. Users can glance at an overview guidance screen to help navigate. It's also easy to snap photos of items.
There are countless possible uses, says Kania. Biotech firms and drug makers could use the Phenom to boost quality control. Manufacturers might use it to build tiny carbon nanotubes or nanowires, which are used in products ranging from auto bodies to tennis rackets. It could also help government regulators find bacteria in order to protect water quality and food safety.
"The Phenom provides the size, cost, and ease of use of a standard microscope but with 20 times the power," said Stephen Berger, an FEI senior vice president and Phenom product line manager.
FEI sells a range of other microscopes. Its largest model, the Titan, stands 14 feet tall. Last year, the firm's orders rose 34% over 2005, says Kania, while sales rose 14% to $420 million.
FEI stock has risen 57% to near 33 since Kania took over the reins last July. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer of Veeco Instruments VECO, a maker of atomic scanning microscopes. Other rivals in this field include Japan's Hitachi HIT and Germany's Carl Zeiss Inc.
Sales of the Phenom could become a key driver of growth for FEI, Kania says. He notes that many governments worldwide are funding new nanotech research projects.
"This may be the next big thing for our company," Kania said. "The world market is making a robust investment in nanotech, and this tool can help."
FEI is selling Phenom at first in North America and Europe and plans to expand sales worldwide next year.
The Phenom has already impressed students at Jackson State University, one of the product's 16 testing sites. Students there used the microscope to compare strands of real hair with synthetic hair, says Quinton Williams, chairman of the school's physics department and president of the Society of Black Physicists.
"What we're trying to do is bring these tools used in nanoscience down to a level that's accessible to our undergraduates," he said. "That kind of hands-on training can create a real spark of interest."
