Past: In 1960 Thornley published the first description of SEM studies carried out at low beam voltage (LVSEM, 1-5 kV). The aim was to reduce charging on insulators but increased contrast and difficulties with low beam current and frozen biological specimens were also noted. These disadvantages prevented widespread use of LVSEM except by a few enthusiasts such as Boyde. An exception was its use in connection with studies in which biological specimens were dissected in the SEM as this process destroyed the conducting films and produced charging unless LVSEM was used.In the 1980’s field emission (FE) SEM’s came into more common use. The high brightness and smaller energy spread characteristic of the FE-SEM’s greatly reduced the practical resolution penalty associated with LVSEM and the number of investigators taking advantage of the technique rapidly expanded; led by those studying semiconductors. In semiconductor research, the SEM is used to measure the line-width of the deposited metal conductors and of the features of the photo-resist used to form them. In addition, the SEM is used to measure the surface potentials of operating circuits with sub-micrometer resolution and on pico-second time scales. Because high beam voltages destroy semiconductors by injecting fixed charges into silicon oxide insulators, these studies must be performed using LVSEM where the beam does not penetrate so far.
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