VESTA—Micron-scale Localized Thermal Analysis

Anasys Instruments, the pioneers of nanoscale thermal measurements, announce the release of VESTA, the first stand-alone solution for Localized Thermal Analysis (LTA) measurements at the micron scale. This is ideal for the quality control of coatings, study of heterogeneous samples, and in-situ failure analysis applications for researchers in the polymer and pharmaceutical industries.

This easy-to-use instrument is designed with an integrated optical microscope for the operator to identify features of interest down to 1.5 micron in size. The operator can just click on any feature of interest in the image to perform localized thermomechanical analysis (TMA) on the features of interest using one of Anasys’ customised heated probes. VESTA enables materials characterization through the study of glass transition and melting temperatures of only the identified feature while the rest of the sample is unperturbed.

Anasys provides a variety of fabricated thermal probes of different end radius (30nm up to 5 micron) to enable optimum interrogation of sample volumes from a few cubic microns to tens of cubic nanometres or sample masses of a few micrograms down to as small as a few picograms.

This point and click technology brings a new and simple tool for scientists and technicians in academia and industry to make routine thermal analysis measurements on the micron scale. Previously, such capabilities were only available in conjunction with an expensive and complex atomic force microscope. VESTA provides a low cost solution for point thermal analysis measurements while retaining the ability to look at sample volumes on the nano scale.