Charged-particle microscope and method for controlling same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8934006-B2
Application number	US-201013511810-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 15, 2010
Priority date	Nov 26, 2009
Publication date	Jan 13, 2015
Grant date	Jan 13, 2015

Abstract

The present invention provides an intuitive and easy-to-operate graphical user interface environment for charged-particle microscopes.
By restricting the operation items of charged-particle microscopes to the control button operations on GUI screen, excluding the charged-particle microscope specific technical terms, and unifying the observation conditions in the simple terminology with which the observation object can be intuitively understood, the operation environment which is intuitive and easy to understand for users not caring charged-particle microscopes is realized, and by restricting each of electron optical conditions in conjunction with the change of the observation condition to the fixed values and tabling them, it is possible to omit the operation workload of the user.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A charged-particle microscope system, comprising:
a scanning charged-particle microscope, the scanning charged-particle microscope comprising: a charged-particle optical mirror body; and a control device for controlling the charged-particle optical mirror body;
a display screen for displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising an observation image display domain in which an observation image in the charged-particle microscope is displayed; and
a computer for executing an operation indicated on the GUI,
wherein the GUI displays:
a start/stop button for switching on/off an acceleration voltage of the charged-particle optical mirror body;
a visual field search button for moving a visual field of the charged-particle microscope observation image displayed on the display screen;
an image confirmation button for displaying a higher resolution image than an image displayed where the visual field search button is clicked;
an adjustment button to be clicked when the charged-particle optical mirror body is adjusted;
a still image button for making an electron beam scan into a still condition in the charged-particle optical minor body; and
an observation condition button, the observation condition button comprising: a surface button; a regular button; and a brightness button,
wherein, when the visual field search button is clicked, a beam scan is executed that is faster than a beam scan executed when the image confirmation button is clicked,
wherein when the adjustment button is clicked, a beam scan is executed that is faster than a beam scan executed when the image confirmation button is clicked, and a size of a beam scanning domain is set narrower than a size of a beam scanning domain set when the image confirmation button is clicked,
wherein when the still image button is clicked, the beam scan becomes in the still condition, and the last scanned image is displayed on the observation image display domain,
wherein when the surface button is clicked, the acceleration voltage is set lower than an acceleration voltage when the regular button and the brightness button are clicked, and a beam current amount is set smaller than a beam current amount set when the regular button and the brightness button are clicked, and
wherein when the brightness button is clicked, the acceleration voltage is set higher than an acceleration voltage set when the regular button and the surface button are clicked, and the beam current amount is set larger than a beam current amount set when the regular button and the surface button are clicked.

2. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein a visual field movement button is displayed in the observation display domain, and when the visual field movement button is clicked, a visual field of the observation image is moved in a direction indicated by the visual field movement button.

3. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 2 , wherein a reset button for returning the visual field of the observation image moved by an operation of the visual field movement button to an original position is displayed on the graphical user interface.

4. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the displays of the start/stop button are made to be switched according to the on/off condition of the acceleration voltage.

5. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein an observation magnification button for adjusting a visual field magnification of the observation image is displayed on the graphical user interface.

6. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein when the regular button is clicked, the acceleration voltage is set higher than an acceleration voltage set when the surface button is clicked, and the beam current amount is set larger than a beam current amount set when the surface button is clicked and is set smaller than a beam current amount set when the brightness button is clicked.

7. The charged-particle microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein when an energy dispersive X-ray analysis equipment is connected to the scanning charged-particle microscope, the brightness button is changed to analysis and displayed on the graphical user interface.

Assignees

• Chino Hajime
• Watahiki Masaru
• Iwaya Toru
• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Chino Hajime
• Watahiki Masaru
• Iwaya Toru

Classifications

• H01J37/22

  Optical {, image processing} or photographic arrangements associated with the tube · CPC title

• H01J37/26

  Electron or ion microscopes; Electron or ion diffraction tubes · CPC title

• H01J37/265 Primary

  Controlling the tube; circuit arrangements adapted to a particular application not otherwise provided, e.g. bright-field-dark-field illumination · CPC title

• H01J37/24 Primary

  Circuit arrangements not adapted to a particular application of the tube and not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G06F3/048

  Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title