PELCO^® Holey Silicon Nitride Support Film for TEM

Advanced MEMs technologies have been applied to incorporate many improvements into this truly unique next generation holey Silicon Nitride support membrane. Holey membranes or support films are also referred to as perforated or patterned films. The platform for this holey Silicon Nitride support film is the low stress 200nm Silicon Nitride support film on a circular 3mm silicon frame with a 0.5 x 0.5mm membrane. The diameter of the holes is 2.5µm with a pitch of 4.5µm in an array of 100 rows x 100 columns in a hexagonal high density arrangement. This design has a number of advantages over previously offered products:

• Relatively large open area
• Added resilience of membrane
• Practical hole size for experiments
• A boundary of 25µm non-perforated membrane surrounding the holey membrane area
• TEM standard circular shape
• EasyGrip™ edge for improved handling

The Silicon Nitride Support Films are resistant to solvents, acids and bases, allowing for dynamic experiments directly on the holey membrane. The Silicon Nitride Support Films allow for high temperature experiments/imaging up to 1000°C. Films can be easily cleaned using glow discharge or plasma cleaning techniques. They also provide a carbon-free background for TEM imaging and analysis. The clean manufacturing techniques avoid the debris particles that are often found on other makes of silicon nitride support films.

Holey 200nm Si3N4 support frame on 3mm frame	0.5 x 0.5mm window with Holey Si3N4 membrane imaged from back side.

• Membrane Thickness: 200nm for added resilience
• Window Size: 0.5 x 0.5mm
• Hole Size and Pitch: 2.5µm circular holes with a 4.5µm pitch
• Pattern: Close packed hexagonal arrangement of 100 x 100 rows/columns with a total of 10,000 holes. A 25um boundary of non-perforated membrane surrounds the perforated area
• Perforated Area: 0.45 x 0.45mm
• Frame Thickness: Silicon support structure is 200µm standard. This allows for fitting in standard TEM holders and gives a sturdy support frame
• Surface Roughness: The RMS (Rq) is 0.65 +/- 0.06nm which gives a mean roughness (Ra) of 0.45 +/- 0.02nm
• Frame Diameter: TEM standard 3mm diameter disc, fully compatible with regular TEM holders and with EasyGrip™ edges for improved handling
• Packaging: The PELCO^® Holey Silicon Nitride Support Films are packaged under cleanroom conditions in the PELCO^® #160 TEM Grid Storage Box. Each box holds 10 support films