Sbir phase II: ION optics optimized for nanoscale stigmatic imaging

Funding Agency & Program: National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084)

Award Details: Steam Instruments Inc. received $1,249,623 in funding under a Cooperative Agreement awarded July 1, 2025, with completion targeted for June 30, 2027. The project focuses on developing advanced ion optics technology optimized for nanoscale stigmatic imaging in a novel imaging mass spectrometer concept. The core deliverable is enabling technology that combines large field-of-view, high spatial resolution, and high-mass resolution capabilities—critical for materials science applications including semiconductor dopant concentration imaging and advanced compositional analysis. This ion optics innovation will enable integration with high-speed imaging detectors, allowing researchers to observe larger sample quantities and quantify very small concentrations across multiple high-technology industries.

The project targets the $500 million+ microscopy market for materials science applications, with projections of 10-14% market capture within six years of commercialization. A viable product is anticipated within one year of project completion. Beyond direct economic impact, the technology is expected to generate substantial indirect benefits through accelerated product development cycles and reduced operational downtime across semiconductor, materials science, and advanced research sectors. The Small Business Innovation Research Phase II award underscores the commercialization potential of Steam Instruments' ion optics innovation and its significance to advancing U.S. scientific instrumentation capabilities.

Abstract

This small business innovation research phase II project will pursue the development of enabling technology for a fundamentally new imaging mass spectrometer concept. From basic science to large industries like energy and semiconductors, better microscopies yield more efficient and insightful work. Throughout history the length scales of human understanding have been directly tied to the microscopes available at the time. Imaging mass spectrometers have broad use, but the initial product to be developed will focus on problems in materials science. The half-billion-dollar contemporary market for microscopes that address these problems includes both electron microscope and mass spectrometer approaches. With a product based on the technologies developed in this project, IT is envisioned that a viable product will be realized within a year of project completion. A 10-14% market capture is predicted within the first six years thereafter. The impact of this improved imaging instrument on the U.S. Economy will also include substantial savings of financial and material resources from faster product development and reduced downtime in affected industries. These latter societal/economic benefits are broad and are valued at many times the direct economic impact. The intellectual merit of this project lies in a new concept for ION optics that are used to image the ions that come from an imaging mass spectrometry sample. This technology is particularly valuable for imaging samples that require a combination of a large field-of-view, high spatial resolution and high-mass resolution. This technology also enables use of a class of very fast imaging detectors, which in turn allows them to observe large amounts of sample material and quantify very small concentrations. This directly benefits several important and vexing problems, e.g., imaging small semiconductor dopant concentrations or investigating the role of hydrogen and lithium in energy materials. To date, electron microscopy solutions have difficulty with the measurement of these low-z elements, and imaging mass spectrometry methods have struggled to achieve the required combination of spatial resolution and quantification accuracy. The objective of this research is to develop a commercially viable method of making ION lens elements that support the extremely high electric fields needed to generate the fields-of-view and high spatial resolution required, and to show that these components do not fail because of electrostatic discharge and damage. Success in doing so would enable rapid commercial introduction of this new technology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.