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Quantifying SEM Resolution and Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

David C Joy  and
Edgar Völkl
David C Joy
Affiliation:
EM Facility, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0810
Edgar Völkl
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6064
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Extract

The ability to reliably and quickly determine the resolution of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is highly desirable becauseonly then can the level of performance which is being achieved be compared to that which was anticipated or specified. Further, in activities such as automated line width measurements, or in telemicroscopy, the ability to quantify the imaging performance provides the remote operator with the necessary information to monitor, document, and optimize the instrument set-up. However, compared to the equivalent task on the transmission electron microscope (TEM) an analysis of SEM performance is hampered by poor signal to noise ratios, and the absence of ideal ‘white noise’ samples.

The two dimensional Fourier power spectrum of an image provides a readout of the frequency content of the information present in the micrograph. From an analysis of the power spectrum the highest spatial frequency transferred in the image can then be determined and hence the resolution of the micrograph can be specified.

Type
New Trends in Scanning Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 4 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '98, Microscopy Society of America 56th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 32nd Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia July 12-16, 1998 , July 1998 , pp. 276 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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3. Partially supported by the Semiconductor Research Corporation under contract 96-LJ-413.001. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05-96OR22464Google Scholar