At Aalto nanomicroscopy center (Aalto-NMC) we have Leica EM High Vacuum Coater ACE600, which provides carbon coating and metal sputtering in the same device. The process is well automated, and the device is easy to use, but devolping sufficient vacuum can be slow.

Thanks Teemu !

This one is actually on our list of references we consider buying.

Do you also use it for SBF-SEM sample prep ? What do you mean by "slow" ?

We don't have the required hardware for SBF-SEM. Coating one sample with our setup takes roughly 10 min (4 nm metal sputter coating). Of course several samples can be loaded at once. The initial pumping takes 4 min, after which turbopump starts. The initial pumping can be shortened with a more effective pump, but the rest 6 min is more or less fixed.