The saga of AFM - A journey into a hot analytical market.

摘要

Anyone who's an expert in atomic force microscopy (AFM) knows the business has seen enough transition throughout the years, with companies coming and going like the changing of the seasons. That's because these remarkable microscopes with widespread application have created a competitive market for buyers in large semiconductor industries, university laboratories, and small analytical testing companies. Don Chernoff, president of Advanced Surface Microscopy, an independent analytical and contract research laboratory in Indianapolis, IN, has seen at least five AFM businesses restructure in five years. "There've been a number of companies that have made a small impact in the market and disappeared." When Analytical Chemistry last reviewed atomic force microscopes in 1996, we listed five example companies: Burleigh Instruments, Inc.; Digital Instruments (DI); Park Scientific Instruments; TopoMctrix; and Veeco Instruments. Today, that same table would have just one company: the DI/Veeco Metrology Group, the result of multiple company mergers. What happened in those five years? Burleigh stopped selling atomic force microscopes; Thermo-Microscopes, now TM Microscopes, bought Park Scientific and TopoMetrix; and Vecco ended up buying TM Microscopes and DI.