The ultimate protection against ice contamination

Start expanding your sample output by employing a secure lamella production workflow with increased automation potential

Get in touch

Get specifications

Minimize ice growth during cryo-ET lamellae preparation

The rate of ice growth during lamellae production, which can reach up to 50 nm/hour, compromises efficiency and increases the risk of obtaining low-quality data. Prevent ice contamination during lamellae preparation with the CERES Ice Shield.

Get in touch

Advantages of CERES Ice Shield

Minimize lamellae ice growth

Automate your cryo-FIB milling workflow

Easily integrate into your cryo-FIB/SEM

CERES IS_EM Grid Contamination_Graph_Ani_v2

Unlock automated cryo-FIB milling

Minimize amorphous ice growth in your cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) workflow with CERES Ice Shield. Benefit from an undetectable ice contamination rate and prepare an increased number of lamellae before encountering the challenges of ice formation, allowing you to automate your cryo-FIB milling workflow.

This work is supported by the European SME2 grant № 879673.

Easy integration for complete protection

The CERES Ice Shield consists of a high-precision cryo shutter that is automatically inserted between the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pole piece and the sample. This shields the sample from ice contamination while also increasing the local vacuum. The shutter incorporates a hole that allows FIB milling while the shutter is inserted, ensuring complete protection of the sample during lamellae production.

Results

Sample protection with CERES Ice Shield

Ice growth

Grid holes of R2/2 200 mesh TEM grids showing ice growth before and after CERES Ice Shield installation. Data courtesy of Dr. S.C. Howes & Prof. F. Förster (Utrecht University)

Interested to learn how to prevent ice growth on your samples?

Read application note

Interested?

Explore your options

Reach out to our team of specialists to find out how CERES Ice Shield can help you to protect your samples and increase your lamellae production volume.

Get in touch

Customers

Trusted by researchers in the field

“From my point of view, every cryo-FIB/SEM user who wants to automate the milling process will benefit from the CERES Ice Shield. Only with it, we were able to run successful overnight sessions.”

Dr. Sebastian Tacke Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology

“As an example, we were able to generate 12 lamellae on a grid with high-pressure frozen ribosomes. This enables us to collect a single particle data on that grid. This wouldn’t have been possible with a smaller number of lamellae.”

Reza Paraan New York Structural Biology Center