Multibeam SEM shifts 3D cell imaging into top gear

Making a detailed 3D image of cells or tissues is very interesting for research in life science domains like cell biology and medical tissue biology. This would provide researchers with both an overview of tissues and detailed information on a nanoscale. Creating such 3D images requires taking very thin slices of the cell structures or tissues and then scanning them in order to build a 3D reconstruction.

This method requires a device that’s able to scan each slice separately and in detail. Until now, this device was the difficult part. A ‘normal’ light microscope can produce a picture of the sample directly. However, with a maximum resolution of only about 400 nm, it’s just not detailed enough. With a resolution of about 1 nm, a traditional scanning electron microscope (SEM) does provide sufficient detail; however, scanning all slices pixel-by-pixel would take months or years to complete.