Patent · US Active

Method of operating a charged particle microscope and charged particle microscope operating according to such method

US9437394B1 · kind B1 · utility

2Cited by

3References

29Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH · DE

Inventors

Simon Diemer · Lauchheim, DE
Janina Schulz · Munich, DE
Emanuel Heindl · Aalen, DE
David Roddom · Ashington, GB

Key dates

Filing date	Mar 28, 2014
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Mar 28, 2034

Classification

Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
CPC primaryH01J2237/216
WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of operating a charged particle microscope comprises: providing settings of a focus, an x-stigmator and an y-stigmator of the charged particle microscope; and then repeatedly performing adjusting the charged particle microscope to the settings, recording an image of an object using the settings, determining a sharpness measure from the recorded image, and changing at least one of the settings of the focus, the x-stigmator and the y-stigmator based on the sharpness measure until a stop criterion is fulfilled. Herein, the determining of the sharpness measure comprises: determining an orientation of an intensity gradient at each of a plurality of locations within one of the recorded image and a processed image generated by processing the recorded image, and determining the sharpness measure based on the plurality of determined orientations.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.