Dan Allred & Co. Seattle, WA

A privately owned and operated Washington state business providing consulting and processing services exclusively for SPI Supplies, an international manufacturer and distributor of microscopy supplies, accessories, and equipment.  Dan Allred & Co. specializes in the mass-production of free-standing ultrathin film materials (from 2 - 30 nm thickness, with estimated precision of +/- 1 nm) across apertures up to 0.5 mm in diameter.

The company began operations in August, 2006 with a licensing agreement with the University of Washington for exclusive rights to the processing of ultrathin films for transmission electron microscopy purposes. While ultrathin films of carbon and silicon based materials are currently marketed and sold by a variety of companies, the advantage of having other materials cast in electron-transparent form make them suitable for analyzing many processes, such as:

Electrochemistry / Corrosion

Self-assembled monolayers and functionalization / hybridization

Catalysis and other size-dependent material properties

Because the processing is performed directly on the electron transparent surface in the correct form factor for transmission electron microscopy, no special preparation procedures are required to study the sample in 2 (or 3) dimensions after fabrication is complete.