Name: ACT
Brand: Kleindiek Nanotechnik GmbH
SKU: ACT

A tilt axis of its own#

The ACT (Anti-Curtaining Table) adds a fourth axis of tilt to a FIB/SEM, oriented perpendicular to the microscope stage’s own tilt axis. The 72 × 54 × 33 mm substage carries 10 mm of X travel and 3 mm of Z under unlimited rotation, all mounted on a tilting platform whose positional encoder resolves ±90° of tilt to 0.1°, holding better than 0.4° absolute accuracy. Using the microscope’s stage, the ACT is positioned and tilted until its own tilt axis sits at the point of beam coincidence — Z brings the sample to eucentric height, X and rotation park the region of interest under the beams, and Y motion comes from walking the ACT itself along that axis so eucentricity never drifts.

Rocking out the curtain#

With the tilt axis coincident, the sample can be rocked back and forth through the ion beam while it is milled — and that rocking is the point. Porous polymer particles milled statically show pronounced curtaining; rocked ±20° during a dynamic mill, the same particles cut clean. Beyond cross-sectioning, the same eucentric rocking serves ECCI, EBSD and tomography — any task built around holding a region of interest steady through tilt. Drift stays under 1.5 nm/min, and the substage loads through the chamber’s load lock; a compact version with reduced tilt range fits tighter chambers.