Multi-beam particle microscope and method for operating same

摘要

A multi-beam particle microscope includes first particle optics in order to direct particle beams onto an object, a detector with detection regions, with a transducer being assigned to each detection region, and a data acquisition system, which has a control computer system, image recording computer systems and a screen. The image recording computer systems receive electrical signals from the transducers and generates a first file, which represents a high resolution image, and a second file, which represents a low resolution image. The control computer system maintains a data structure which represents an assignment of transducers to two-dimensional spatial vectors and depicts the images on the screen, wherein a reference point in each image is arranged on the screen in a coordinate system of the screen at a location which is defined by a sum of a leading vector, which is the same for all images, and the spatial vector.

主权项

1. A multi-beam particle microscope, comprising:
a multi-beam source configured to generate a first array of a plurality of first particle beams; first particle optics configured to direct the first particle beams onto an object so that the first particle beams are incident at locations of incidence on the object, which form a second array; a detector comprising a plurality of detection regions or a plurality of detectors which each have one detection region, the detection regions being arranged in a third array, the detector or detectors comprising a plurality of transducers, a transducer being assigned to each detection region and configured to generate an electrical signal representing a particle intensity incident on the detection region; and a data acquisition system comprising a control computer system and at least one image recording computer system, wherein: i) the at least one image recording computer system is configured to: a) receive the electrical signals from at least one of the transducers; b) generate a first file from the received electrical signals, the first file representing a first particle-microscopic image of a region of the object scanned by one of the plurality of first particle beams, the image represented by the first file being an image with a high image resolution, and the first file having a file size that is greater than a first value; c) generate a second file from the received electrical signals, the second file representing a second particle-microscopic image of the region of the object, the image represented by the second file being an image with a low image resolution, the second file having a file size that is less than a second value, and the second value being less than the first value; and d) transmit the second file to the control computer system; and ii) the control computer system is configured to: a) receive the second images from the at least one image recording computer system; b) maintain a data structure representing an assignment of transducers to two-dimensional spatial vectors; and c) display the images received from the transducers on a screen, a reference point in each image on the screen being arranged, in a coordinate system of the screen, at a location which is definable by a sum of:
a) a leading vector which is the same for all images; andb) a spatial vector assigned to the transducer from which the image recording computer system has received the electrical signals in order to generate the image.