Real-Time Scanning Charged-Particle Microscope Image Composition with Correction of Drift

Čižmár, Petr; Vladár, András; Postek, Michael T.

doi:10.1017/s1431927610094250

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…The fast imaging method is comprised of compensation techniques to minimize the errors caused by the mechanical drift and vibration of the sample stage and the unwanted motions of the primary electron beam of the SEM [1]. This newly developed method allows for the acquisition of images and data suitable for meaningful comparisons of the results, and for validation of the agreement or pinpointing the reasons for possible disagreements between the designed and printed structures.…”

Section: Fast Imagining Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate nanometer-scale imaging and measurements with SEM

Damazo¹,

Ming²,

Purushotham³

et al. 2011

2011 11th IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology

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Scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) are incredibly versatile instruments for millimeter to nanometer scale imaging and measurements of size and shape. New methods to improve repeatability and accuracy have been implemented on the so-called Reference SEMs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These methods include: 1) very fast digital imaging and real-time corrective composition of SEM images, showing superiority over both traditional fast or slow image collection methods; 2) high-precision sample stage with laser interferometry, providing traceability and compensation for stage drift and vibration with sub-nanometer performance; and 3) contamination and charging mitigation through hydrogen and oxygen plasma cleaning. These new methods can be applied in other SEMS as well to realize quantitative scanning electron microscopy.

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Section: Fast Imagining Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate nanometer-scale imaging and measurements with SEM

Damazo¹,

Ming²,

Purushotham³

et al. 2011

2011 11th IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology

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“…The fundamental methodology and mathematical rigor involved in ACCORD has been described in the literature (17,18). ACCORD is a program that leverages the advantages afforded by DFS and couples it with cross correlation methods to output signifi cantly more accurate images than other traditional microscope imaging techniques.…”

Section: Drift-corrected Image Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does your SEM really tell the truth? How would you know? part 3: vibration and drift

2014

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This is the third of a series of papers discussing various causes of measurement uncertainty in scanned particle beam instruments, and some of the solutions researched and developed at NIST. Scanned particle beam instruments especially the scanning electron microscope (SEM) have gone through tremendous evolution to become indispensable tools for many and diverse scientifi c and industrial applications. These improvements have signifi cantly enhanced their performance and made them far easier to operate. But, ease of operation has also fostered operator complacency. In addition, the user-friendliness has reduced the need for extensive operator training. Unfortunately, this has led to the concept that the SEM is just another expensive digital camera or another peripheral device connected to a computer and that all of the issues related to obtaining quality data have been solved. Hence, a person (or company) using these instruments may be lulled into thinking that all of the potential pitfalls have been fully eliminated and they believe everything they see on the micrograph is always correct. But, as described in this and the earlier presentations this may not be the case. The fi rst paper in this series discussed some of the issues related to signal generation in the SEM, including instrument calibration, electron beam-sample interactions and the need for physics-based modelling to understand the actual image formation mechanisms to properly interpret SEM images. The second paper, discussed another major issue confronting the microscopist: specimen contamination and methods of contamination elimination. This third paper, discusses vibration and drift and some useful solutions. INTRODUCTIONScanning electron microscopes are used extensively in nanomanufacturing characterization, metrology and process control. Two earlier papers (1, 2), discussed some of the potential issues related to signal generation in the SEM, instrument calibration, electron beam interactions, and the need for modelling to understand the actual image generation. All these were summed together in a discussion of how these issues effect measurements made with the instrument. The second paper, discussed another major issue confronting the microscopist: which is specimen contamination and methods of contamination reduction and elimination. This third paper, discusses the additional components of measurement uncertainty induced by vibration and drift and some possible solutions to these issues. Over the years, several workers at NIST have done a great deal of research into these issues in order to improve the fundamental metrology with particle beam instruments and some of this work is reviewed and discussed here.

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“…Naresh Marturi, Sounkalo Dembélé, and Nadine Piat are with Automatic control and Micro Mechatronic Systems (AS2M) department, Institute FEMTO-ST, Besançon, France. naresh.marturi at femto-st.fr [5], [6] and [7], a frequency domain phase correlation method is used. Cornille has proposed that the drift between pixels or between lines of an image is negligible; instead, the drift between the two images can be considered as a whole [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first one is based on estimating the drift directly from the current image by comparing it with a reference image and correcting the current image in real time [5], [7]. The second approach is based on developing an empirical model of the drift that is then used to estimate and compensate the drift in real time [3], [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast image drift compensation in scanning electron microscope using image registration

Marturi

Dembélé

Piat

2013

2013 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)

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Abstract-Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image acquisition is mostly affected by the time varying motion of pixel positions in the consecutive images, a phenomenon called drift. In order to perform accurate measurements using SEM, it is necessary to compensate this drift in advance. Most of the existing drift compensation methods were developed using the image correlation technique. In this paper, we present an image registration-based drift compensation method, where the correction on the distorted image is performed by computing the homography, using the keypoint correspondences between the images. Four keypoint detection algorithms have been used for this work. The obtained experimental results demonstrate the method's performance and efficiency in comparison with the correlation technique.

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Real-Time Scanning Charged-Particle Microscope Image Composition with Correction of Drift

Cited by 25 publications

References 13 publications

Accurate nanometer-scale imaging and measurements with SEM

Accurate nanometer-scale imaging and measurements with SEM

Does your SEM really tell the truth? How would you know? part 3: vibration and drift

Fast image drift compensation in scanning electron microscope using image registration

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