Highlights of recent
FEI technologies to
increase system utility
and enhance the user
experience
Alberto Tinti
S.E.M.P.A. Meeting
March 2011
© 2011 FEI Company
FEI strives to make microscopes that do
more and are easy to operate
•Options to improve performance
• Beam Deceleration – bringing better low kV performance to Tungsten and
FEG SEM columns
• Detection – collecting information from every angle
•Options for user experience
• CNU™
• Image navigation & Navigation Montage
• Nav-Cam™
• Multiple Image Save function
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© 2011 FEI Company
Beam Deceleration improves the low kV
performance for SEM imaging
2kV image on Tungsten
2kV Tungsten SEM images of
diatome from Dr. Vaida
Seiriene, Lithuanian Institute
of Geology and Geography
HFW 250nm
200V Carbon nanotubes with
catalyst particles, Courtesy of
Prof. Raynald Gauvin and
Camille Probst, McGill Univ.
on the Magellan™
1kV @ 1.6 million mag
Yeast, high pressure frozen
and fractured, W coated
Courtesy Adriaan van Aelst,
University Wageningen
Magellan, Cryo stage, Leica
VCT100, on Magellan™
Works on most current FEI SEM and DualBeam™ systems (Tungsten or FEG) and is integrated
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Beam Deceleration Mode
“Beam Deceleration (BD) Mode” is FEI name for SEM optical mode where the sample
is biased and primary electrons are decelerated and focused before landing.
1) Beam travels through the system at a higher
voltage yielding a beam profile of the higher kV
= significantly smaller beam diameter
~ “writing details with a smaller pen”
= better resolution
2) Landing energy = (HV – Sample Bias Voltage)
= less interaction depth, tighter volume
~ “lower energy penetrates less on impact”
= better surface sensitivity
3) Signal electrons are accelerated from sample
= detected at higher energy than emitted
~ “signal is amplified/pushed out of the sample”
= lower detection limit
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1kV
BSE
1kV
1kV
Ground
Grounded
5kV
BSE
5kV
1kV
-4kV bias
BD MODE
BD mode bends the SE and BSE toward the
beam axis changing the signal collection
BD mode ON
maximum sample bias
BD mode OFF
no sample bias
SE
BSE
Grounded
Up to -4kV
Samples should be relatively flat and normal to the lens for symmetrical bending
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Low voltage signal detection improvement
for tungsten systems
BD off
Backscatter
Image
0.5 kV
NO BSE
IMAGE at
500V
500V
imaging
in a W
system!!!
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© 2011 FEI Company
BD off
Secondary
Image
0.5 kV
BD with BSE
3.5 kV
↓
0.5 kV
Angular selection of signal with BD mode
BD Mode
5 keV
SE signal
with surface
detail from
BSE diode
Changing the BD parameters
can be used to select a
different signal angle on the
BSE detector
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© 2011 FEI Company
BD Mode
3 keV
BSE atomic
composition
signal
without
topography
New generation Directional BS (DBS)
CBS detector: Concentric/annular segmentation
Inner rings collect signal on-axis
with the primary beam which
contains most channeling or
atomic contrast information
Outer rings collect large angle BSE
signal, topographical contrast
similar to SE information
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SEM
DBS
Sample
Revolutionary DBS signal segregation from
concentric/annular ring segmentation
Material contrast
Topographic contrast
Same gold on carbon sample, field of view and detector…
Difference is the achieved directional segmentation of signal
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Multi-angle – Multi-signal collection –
Simultaneously
• User defined segment arithmatics
• Select only segment(s) that contain
the information of interest
• Up to 4 segments (or combination
of) collected simultaneously
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Solar Cell Material
Multi-angle – Multi-signal collection –
Simultaneously
• Detector is avalable for Magellan,
Helios and Nova NanoSEM
• Available for Quanta, Quanta FEG,
Inspect and Quanta 3D FEG in the
fall (larger detector diameter being
developed for these systems)
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© 2011 FEI Company
Navigation and annotation
EASE OF USE ENHANCEMENTS
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© 2011 FEI Company
Correlative Navigation Utility (CNU)
The Correlative Navigation Utility (CNU) is a software-based solution that
enables SEM and DualBeam users to navigate the electron microscope stage
using an imported low-magnification “search” image.
The imported images can be
taken from an optical
microscope, digital camera,
scanner, CAD drawing, etc.
CNU can acquire “tiled
images” to cover a larger
area and overcome SEM/SDB
field-of-view limits.
Individual images from each
montage “step” can be
saved and used for
navigation reference.
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Image based navigation in Inspect Series
•Any image on the screen can be
transferred to the Navigation tab (GET) and
used to move the sample
•double click a feature to bring the feature
to the center of the image area
•Draw a box to zoom to an area
• Clear location indication is overlayed on
the image (crosshair or box) and can be
toggled with the stage diagram
•Quickly find your way around a sample
with this standard feature
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© 2011 FEI Company
Navigation montage and image navigation
•Any image on the screen can be used as
a reference to move the sample
•A montage can be made with any
available imaging detector
•double click a feature to bring the
feature to the center of the image area
•Draw a box to zoom to an area
• Clear location indication is overlayed
on the image (crosshair or box) and can
be toggled with the stage diagram
•Quickly find your way around a sample
with this standard feature
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Nav-Cam™: Fast and Easy Navigation
Simple to use 5MP
color navigation
camera is easy to use
before pumping the
chamber
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Quanta 250 chamber shown. Models for several new systems are available:
Quanta x50, Inspect (x50), Nova NanoSEM x50, Helios x50, Magellan
© 2011 FEI Company
“Save all” function
• Allows saving images in all
quadrants with a single
command
• Some images can be color jpg
files including the location box
to record position on navigation
images
•Easy mechanism to keep track
of the exact area every image
comes from
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© 2011 FEI Company
Thank you for your attention, our TEAM at FEI
works hard to provide the solution for your needs…
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© 2011 FEI Company