Is anyone surprised by this?
To be honest, hearing different kind of unfortunate rumors and dissatisfaction with SXFiveFE, and hearing all kind of stupid public order stories from my own country (but I guess whole bureaucratic monstrosity called as EU has similar idiotic laws and such cases was wide common) I was fearing this would happen even much sooner. I know at least few cases in last few years where some folks from public institutions wanted to buy Cameca SXFive, but final winner of public order was JEOL probe because of the price (Imagine You would want to buy a heavy-load truck, but following the procedure of law would force you to buy a minivan instead...). SXFiveFE is also known with misfortune startup, we had some bumps with our SXFiveFE (I know also some users which were completely happy from day-1), but I also hear few cases of unpleasant threats and even a case of instrument return. Marketing of Field Emission was also on completely inadequate point (mainly advertised very low voltage and reduced beam size - my chief still tends to bother me with that nonsense as that was main point for buying FEG instrument). The beam stability and preserved beam size at very high (extreme) currents is actually the real main advantage important to EPMA; I see Shimadzu Grand EPMA gets right point on FEG in its marketing, and It was not made as primary point by Cameca. They better should had not advertised some hardly useful feature (small size) - that latter bitten back as some users (especially those not very bright ones) felt their expectations was not met.
SXFiveFE is an excellent instrument (at this point lots of hardware and software/firmware bugs were addressed and fixed), If I would have a chose to change it into simple SXFive (not FEG) I would stay with FE version. SXFiveFE also is quite unique Schottky's emitter equipped instrument as it has only simple password protected FEG (locked for the beginners, but accessible for the experts), that means That it is possible to run and abuse and perfectly maintain the FEG tip without any stupid obstacles and "only-for-service" locks (looking to You JEOL and other SEM vendors). In example it is possible to turn up brightness temporary, and/or prolong lifetime (i.e. with clever monitoring and well-informed parameter adjustment I had achieved the tip running for 3+ year within stability specification; Yeah I hear that JEOL do that without user interaction, but I am talking about classical FEG tip (available from few vendors), not some modified patented JEOL version).
For those of us who work in minor/trace element analysis every day, EDS is simply not workable in this realm at all. Furthermore, despite the great pulse processing capability of SDDs, they are still nowhere near as sensitive as WDS. We have tried to use EDS in particle searches, but it's been totally inadequate.
It is not SDD, it is just "great pulse processing" just-that. The improve in counting electronics just happened simultaneously to SDD technology, but that significant improvement in electronics is often mingled and burred behind advertisement of "SDD". What SDD brings is the good resolution, but that huge throughput would be impossible without new design of shaping and counting electronics. See in example Amptek's EDS assortment of detector components, and with short shaping times Si-PIN or CdTe solid state detectors can have near or surpassing 1Mcps (however at worse resolution than SDD's), which still is far better than what old SiLi detectors (and its counting electronics) offered.
As for particle search I am quite happy with SEM-EDS performance (two Bruker XFlash 6|10 on ZEISS SEM-FE). It allows to cover fully 2 thin sections during night with 1um resolution with hyperspectral maps which then can be used to mark expected -
and also not expected accessory minerals. No problems to get monazites, zircons, rutiles, apatites... + 16bit BSE and find some interesting unexpected accessories. I am sure that SX would need to work much harder to achieve something like that with such resolution.
My impression is that EDS is less useful on a shielded microprobe. If that is really the case, perhaps we might speculate about the future of the long term Cameca-Bruker partnership?
Interestingly, just today, Bruker announced a webinar for using WDS on SEMs for light element analysis. I'm guessing they knew about Cameca leaving the unshielded EPMA market before most of us...
SDD probably is not good for radioactive materials... however some EDS'es (in example those from AMPTEK, CdTe and Si-PIN) are even advertised for nuclear usage. Maybe Bruker is not making radiation-resilient detectors - but that does not mean that all EDS are like that. I expect that Cameca would try adding AMPTEK's detectors for EDS to shielded probes, especially that AMPTEK is also a part of AMETEK inc.
Brukers XFlash Nano for SX100 (and SXFive) is really nice piece of Hardware, it is generation older than what is sold for full sized SEM (also Pulse Processing Unit is version 3, where commonly currently SEM are with version 6), but actually I like it more as it has some really nice genius engineering details and more linear behavior than newer and bigger versions. Its small size can mislead, and it misled myself thinking that it is some downsized (crippled) and limited EDS compared to those which are on our SEM (XFlash 6|10 and XFlash 6|30), but actually I found out recently that little EDS is best for quantitative work from all Bruker EDS detectors we have on SEM's.
I know that Bruker is producing WDS detectors for SEM (alongside EDS, EBSD, CL and µXRF) for long time already, I would not speculate that Cameca leaving the unshielded EPMA market have something to do with that webinar. It is rather a coincidence (albeit I am going to attend that as I am very curious what is the performance of these WDS, and sometimes I like asking troublesome questions...).
Yeah, I guess that makes life easier for JEOL, however for our community it is a huge blow - monopolies tends to slow down the development and progress and increase the costs. No more Cameca SX means that JEOL will now can raise the price of sold probes without linear encoders and sell at same price as technologically more advanced Cameca SX as it won't need to compete on the price anymore.
But are we all going to buy the new probe just because the Cameca would drop support in 8/10 years? I am not so pessimistic, and I think with proper planning and stockpiling the right parts and some know-how, the usability of those machines can easily be lengthened to more than 8/10 years. Alternatively, there is also some room for "Frankenstain"-ization of these instruments...
From where I sit I see many people enamored of the speed of SEM-EDS. These folks seem quite satisfied with instant EDS analysis (not using calibration standards) and are more interested in final cost than final quality. Dale Newbury has predicted the demise of WDS for many years. Are we finally seeing the beginning of the end for WDS?
Now probably I will trigger many one here and I could look like tin-foil guy here or worse... If You don't want to get depression just stop reading right there! OK, I am spilling it: I would say we generally see the beginning of the of end of practicing scientific method and being that replaced with "science" as a religion with all its attributes. And massive move to EDS-standardless is just one of countless side-effects of loosened perception what is and is not science.
In "Publish-or-perish" mode for academics the standard-less EDS is like god-sent allowing to hastily move with production of another paper. There is more papers being produced in any given subject than anyone can read (by read I mean study it with full understanding).
For forensic... there is so many cases and crime only keeps increasing and this EDS-standardless increases throughput. uncertainties? what is that for?.
For industries... no, we are not looking how to make material non-destructible for next 50 years (2 years are more than enough), but looking for some forbidden elements to comply with just another countless law (need to confirm absence of this and that element which inclusion is crucial for high durability; sustaining development is not about stopping producing garbage - it is about sustaining production). EDS-standardless---perfecto!
The darkest darkness (this paragraph is severely depressive and pessimistic):
Geology education and Geology science institutions are going down in western countries and/or being cannibalized by eco "sciences". The real story: to understand to what the degree and how much the primary/high schools brain-washes the young generation - some of young students in our University had protested learning where lies the deposits of natural oil and gas reserves in our country because oil is not "green". This trend is very clear and less and less students chose the subjects and specialization anyhow connected with natural mineral deposits.
It is very likely that many of institutions and labs currently possessing Cameca SX probes will cease to exist earlier than what Cameca declares to support (8-10 years). The bright side of that: there will be no dilemma if to buy a new JEOL or Shimadzu probe.
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