The UST-5500 has been designed by the E. Fjeld Company as a direct replacement stage for the Hitachi S-4000 series Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEMs).

The stage and drive electronics of the UST-5500 incorporate advanced technologies to enable high resolution imaging and smooth motion at high magnifications.  Conventional designs utilize comparatively large step-sizes and non-optimal drive methods, that cause the SEM image to "jump" at very high magnifications and slow speeds.  Many users resort to using the SEM's electronic "Beam" or "Image" shift, which may introduce problems such as beam distortion, image shift run-out (inability to further deflect the beam), and loss of sample addressability (inability to determine exactly where the beam is striking the sample).  The UST-5500 overcomes these limitations by allowing accurate positioning, smooth motion, and slow speeds at high magnifications, all without using image shift.

The UST-5500 is beneficial in many applications, including:

High resolution stepping motors on all axes (X, Y, Z, T and R) of the UST-5500 specimen stage.  The Y, Z, T and R motors are internally mounted and vacuum prepped by E. Fjeld Co.  The X motor is mounted externally and directly coupled to the drive mechanics of the stage.  Other features include:

Software package designed for storage and recall of axis coordinates.  Allows several different modes of addressing, including absolute, offset absolute, and relative.