Site icon The XPS Research Institute Inc (501c3, DNP)

Services

XPS or ESCA Surface Analysis:

 

Ceramic Analysis by XPS or ESCA Surface Analysis:

 

Glass Analysis by XPS or ESCA Surface Analysis

 

Composite Analysis by XPS or ESCA Surface Analysis:

 

Metal Analysis by XPS

 

Mineral Inorganic Analysis by XPS

 

Organic Analysis by XPS

 

Paper and Packaging Analysis by XPS

 

Plastic and Polymer Analysis by XPS

 

Semiconductor Analysis by XPS

 

Services

 

Capabilities

 

XPS Surface Analysis Application Examples

 

Case Histories

 

Industries

 

Analytical Services
  • Small-Spot X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) with Depth Profiling, Heating, & RGA MS
  • Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) with Golden Gate ATR for most materials and Veemax II variable-angle specular reflectance for enhanced surface sensitivity
  • Wavelength-Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (WD-XRF)
  • Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Digital Imaging, Robinson Backscatter Electron Imaging, and Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy
  • Metallographic Optical Microscopy
  • Thermal Anaylsis [Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetry (TG or TGA), and Thermomechanical Analysis (TMA) or dilatometry]
  • Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectroscopy or GC-MS, solvent extraction or head space – SPME for volatile compounds
  • Electrochemical Evaluations (potentiostatic, galvanostatic, potentiodynamic polarization, and EIS) and Corrosion Testing
  • UV-Vis Photospectromety with Reflectivity (Specular and Diffuse)
  • Mechanical Testing, Instron
  • Shore A and Shore D Hardness Testing
  • Coating and Film Thickness Measurements by SEM, optical microscopy, XPS depth profile
  • Cross Section Analysis
  • Metallography
  • Fractography
  • Contact Angle Measurements
  • Density and Porosity Measurements
  • Silicone Contamination Measurement and Detection for facilities and ovens
  • CO2 snow jet, Plasma (Microwave, Oxygen, or Hydrogen), UV, and Solvent Cleaning and Effectiveness Analysis
  • Consulting
  • Experimental Design
  • Expert Witness
  • Failure Analysis and Forensic Engineering
  • Quality Control and Assurance
  • Research and Development
  • Materials Verification
  • Materials Specifications Development
  • Counterfeit Product Detection and Proof
  • Specimen Preparation

Engineering Materials, Chemicals, and Products Support Services
  • Adhesive Failure Analysis / Adhesion Testing
  • Aerospace Materials Analysis
  • Building and Construction Materials Testing
  • Ceramic Materials Analysis
  • Coating and Paint Analysis
  • Composite Materials Analysis
  • Surface Contamination Analysis
  • Corrosion Testing of Metals
  • Electronics / Semiconductor Materials Analysis
  • Fiber Analysis
  • Glass and Fiberglass Analysis
  • Inorganic Chemicals and Minerals Analysis
  • Medical Devices and Prostheses
  • Metal Analysis and Testing
  • Optical Communications / Photonics Materials and Devices Analysis
  • Organic Chemicals and Materials
  • Paper / Packaging Materials Analysis
  • Particle Analysis
  • Pharmaceutical Materials and Chemical Analysis
  • Plastic / Polymer Analysis
  • Surface & Interface Contamination and Cleaning Testing
  • Thin Film Analysis

Sample Submission

1) Call or E-mail Us
Discuss your materials or analytical problem by phone or e-mail with one of our professional scientists/engineers so we can understand the nature of your problem and can work in partnership with you to develop a plan for analysis.  We will provide quotes based on our agreed upon plan of analysis.

Rush Jobs: We often work extra hours to complete rush jobs for our customers, but our ability to accommodate rush jobs will depend on our capacity.  Note that rush jobs typically incur higher fees, most commonly a 25 to 50% higher fee.  The rush fee is dependent upon our overall workload, the availability of scientists, and the number of other expedited projects. Our rush fees are commonly lower than the 50% to 100% rush fees charged by many laboratories.

2) Obtain a PO / Provide Payment Info
Obtain a purchase order or provide us with credit card information to charge once the analysis is complete and has been reported to you. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards.  We accept payments through Paypal also.  Check payments should be sent to our laboratory address given in the heading of each of our website pages.

3) Fill out Sample Submission Form
Fill out a sample submission form or a chain of custody form or both. Return the form or forms to us by e-mail, fax, or send them with the samples to be analyzed. Please note that absolutely no DSC analysis will be performed without this form being completely filled out due to the sensitivity of the DSC to corrosive attack.  If your material may be corrosive, we must be informed of this or authorized to perform other analyses to determine for ourselves whether your samples are corrosive.  DSC analysis is performed at your risk for DSC cell replacement if you claim your material is not corrosive and that proves false.

4) Select and Send Samples
Proper sample selection and handling is critical to ensuring the integrity and accuracy of results, as well as for preventing any delays or rework.  Please see our sample selection and handling guide for guidance on important factors to consider.  Samples should be sent to our laboratory address, which is given on every one of our web pages.

Quality

Quality and Our Mission

XPS Research Institute offers a broad spectrum of materials analytical services to help its customers shoulder the burdens of materials development and characterization, process and product development, quality control, and failure analysis. We also provide research, consultative, and expert witness services.  Each project is managed by one of our four Ph.D. scientists and personally examined for quality by this exceptionally well-trained, highly intelligent, and experienced scientist.

We collaborate with our clients to help develop goal-directed solutions to their metal, semiconductor, glass, polymer, inorganic and organic chemical, ceramic, composite, mineral, and contaminant material problems. We perform requested analyses, but we very commonly design a custom analytical approach to provide the material understanding needed.  To do this we must discuss the background of the problem, define the tasks necessary to address the problem, provide the needed analysis or analyses, and discuss the solution pathway elucidated by the analytical results obtained. After solving or better identifying the problem, we may suggest further R & D and quality control analyses for greater benefits.  Our primary service is not simply a measurement.  It is materials understanding for your applications and purposes.

We document our materials investigations with thorough written reports to ensure that clients can fully understand and independently examine the analytical results and conclusions. This establishes a documented history for future process and product development and control issues. Such problems that arise in production often have a tendency to reoccur, so it is important that they be documented and archived.  Our reports establish the nature of the material investigated, which may differ from other materials commonly thought to be the same or similar in ways which may be critical for certain applications and use environments.  Our reports provide materials characterizations which should be a part of a good quality control system for materials used for production and in final products.  A good quality control system matches materials characterizations with product efficacy and materials failures.  When no known product or materials problems exist, our materials characterizations can provide a baseline for a problem-free material against which materials characterization changes during failures and other problems can be later compared.

Our efforts to efficaciously address materials characterizations and problem solving activities achieve high quality when we have provided the needed understanding of the materials problem we have been called upon to address at a rational cost and in a timely manner.  It has to be remembered at all times that further analysis and effort in understanding a material will generally lead to further understanding.  Quality analysis is not equivalent to a perfect understanding of a material, because the client has only limited money and time to provide us for the purpose of characterizing and understanding a material.  High quality is achieved when the level of understanding of a material is rationally balanced with the resources made available by the client for a given materials investigation.

Our XPS surface analysis, and optical microscopy measurement capabilities give us powerful tools to apply to a client’s materials and process evaluations. We frequently apply these techniques in combinations and in unusual ways to solve materials problems.  Quality is not a matter of establishing routines and cookbook recipes.  It is achieved in this laboratory by a constant effort to understand our instruments, the many methods of their use, the likely and reasonable properties of materials, a constantly probing mind keenly observing both expected results and anomalous results, and above all the wise interpretation of data to produce materials understanding.  Anomalous results must be examined to be sure they are truly due to unusual material properties or because the material is chemically different than we were told it would be, rather than due to instrument malfunction or uncalibrated behavior.  Of course we deal constantly with known materials and in such cases the measurements make us aware of any anomalous need for recalibration or repair of our instruments.

Materials are very complex and there are many tens of thousands of applied materials.  They are processed in myriad ways, used in innumerable applications, and in an infinite number of environments, with varied histories.  Quality materials understanding is primarily achieved by years of experience spent studying materials with keen observation, a questing, experimental mind, constant, critical evaluations of laboratory results, the development of in-house analytical techniques, discussions with our XRI colleagues, client-supplied information, and research information gathered from published sources and the Internet.

Who is Responsible for Quality at XPS Research Institute?

Every employee of the company is responsible.  Very little of our work is susceptible to a simple recipe description.  All of our work requires the focused attention and rational thought of our employees.  Each employee is encouraged to use every resource we have available to become a better scientist.  We only hire Ph.D. scientists because we require that our staff be highly intelligent and continuous learners on their own initiative.  If you need help with any issue that affects the quality of our work, please discuss it with either of the company owners:

Here is our complete AME Quality Manual.  We have not played the accreditation game, which is designed for laboratories with employees with weaker scientific training and little more than routine analyses to perform. Instead, we offer you thinking and experienced professional scientists who are passionately dedicated to do their work with careful observation, rational insight, and the determination to solve your materials problems.

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