The ACE900 is a vacuum chamber equipped with a liquid nitrogen cooled knife for precise freeze-fracture for expose the inner surface of samples to be observed in the cryo-SEM. It is equipped with a temperature controlled stage that maintains the sample at low temperatures and allows a controlled etching.
The instrument is also equipped with electron-beam sources (carbon and platinum) for coating samples and has also an angular control over the evaporation direction and a rotating sample stage, which allows for both unidirectional or rotatory shadowing or double axis rotatory shadowing.