Electron optics rebels come up with new dwarf microscope

They previously caused a furor with the Phenom tabletop microscope. Now these Dutch electron optics experts are launching a small scanning electron microscope that they claim is more user-friendly and also cheaper. The core team of Nuenen-based Phe-nx, maker of the Nanos, consists largely of the people who developed the Phenom and made it a commercial success.

Phenom-World, the maker of the Phenom, was initially set up in a partnership between FEI Electron Optics (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), Philips Natlab, NTS and Sioux. But the devices were so successful that Thermo Fisher Scientific bought the company in early 2018. Phe-nx’s co-founder Karel van der Mast on the birth of the new startup: “It actually started when we realized that Phenom-World wasn’t what it used to be after the acquisition.”