Laboratories of Nobel Prize holders and chip-producing giants: electron microscopes from Brno are changing the world!

The producers of electron microscopes from our region reached a turnover of over 32 billion CZK last year, with 23 billion the year before, with almost all the instruments being exported. Thermo Fisher Scientific is a dominant producer here, and this American company which operates the biggest development centre in Brno exported 1213 microscopes last year. The cheapest one cost five million CZK while the most expensive was over eighty million.
 

Their value is substantially raised by the scientific discoveries they contribute to. “You can find our technologies at the universities in Oxford, Harvard, and Ohio State University. They are essential for electronics producers as well as major players in the pharmaceutical industry, including those that develop vaccines,” says the company’s CEO, Petr Střelec. 

What is a meteorite made of? 

The instruments from Brno are used by the holders of the Nobel Prize for chemistry to develop cryo-electron microscopy or by Israeli physicist Dan Shechtman, who was awarded for the discovery of quasicrystals. Recently, a scanning transmission electron microscope by Thermo Fisher Scientific helped the National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy from the UK (SuperSTEM) to identify what a meteorite is made of, referring to building blocks of life on Earth.
 

The company exports microscopes to countries such as the USA, Germany, and the UK which boast major universities and research centres. Most of them, though, go to Asia and its technology giants dealing in the development of electronics and microchip production.

Benefits for sciences as well as industry 

The high-tech instruments made by TESCAN from Brno are used in science as well as industry. Since its establishment in 1991, the company has produced, delivered, and installed around four thousand microscopes in 80 countries all over the world. It has a strong position in both North and South America as well as in Asia.
 

“In recent years, we’ve experienced a growth in material sciences and developed several new procedures for specific applications in biological sciences. We’ve also seen a growing demand for instruments supporting research, development, fault analysis, and process development and monitoring in semiconductors. Technology companies realise the key importance of electron microscopes, given the huge investments into production and the pressure to automate. This is a clear direction and an opportunity we’d like to use for our company to further grow,” says the company’s CEO Jean-Charles Chen.
 

Single- and two-volume scanning microscopes are used mainly to check the quality of a chip. This technology is used by chip-producing giants, such as Intel, Samsung, Nvidia, AMD, Infineon, Bosch, and TSMC.
 

When it comes to science, in 2023 TESCAN installed one of its instruments in Ernst Ruska-Centre, which is one of the laboratories best equipped with electron microscopes in the world, or for American Dragonfly Energy, a leader in green energy storage. Tescan’s major clients also include technology universities from all over the world. 

Even the smallest microscopes change the world 

Delong Instruments supplies universities and hospital laboratories with its products as well. The company’s microscopes are among the smallest in the world, which makes them unique. “We are proud that our electron microscopes are often among the first ones our clients purchase; they are robust and more affordable, suitable for beginners or for teaching,” says product manager Eva Coufalová.
 

They are also a preferred choice among researchers who need to carry out analyses in different ways but can’t afford a special instrument for each of them. Still, they cost millions of Czech crowns, with Delong producing dozens of them a year. Most often, they go to North America and Asia to help diagnose viruses, bacteria, and genes, or to examine toxins harmful to the environment. 

Microscope community in Brno 

Not all the instruments have to cross the borders and leave the Czech Republic, as some of them play quite an important role directly in the region they come from. The best examples are the CEITEC laboratories at the Brno University of Technology, equipped for the research of nanotechnologies and advanced materials. CEITEC at Masaryk University in Brno has some top-class equipment in its laboratory for cryo-electron microscopy to study biological samples, including viruses.
 

“The cooperation with the local community of major institutes and technology companies active in electron microscopy is a significant benefit for us. This environment provides us with exceptional support, opportunities, and inspiration,” explains Pavel Plevka, acting director at CEITEC MU. The members of this community perfectly complement each other, and the researchers as well as former students participate there in the development of microscopes. The companies from Brno then produce and supply them to research centres, where they are applied in new ways.