The Hitachi IM4000 Ar ion milling system makes two milling configurations available in a single instrument.

While previously two separate systems were needed to perform both, cross section cutting (E-3500) and wide-area sample surface fine polishing (IM3000), Hitachi's new IM4000 now allows to run both applications within the same machine.

Furthermore, the new Ar ion gun design of the IM4000 allows to reduce cross section processing times by as much as 66% compared to the previous E-3500 as the maximum milling rate has been increased to now 300µm/h for Si.

Also in the IM4000 the sample stage unit can be removed as a whole for convenient specimen setting and cross section cutting edge fine positioning using as external high-resolution optical microscope.