Charged particle microscope scan masking for three-dimensional reconstruction

A charged particle microscope computational support apparatus, comprising:

• first logic to, for each angle of a plurality of angles, generate an associated scan mask for scanning a specimen, wherein a scan mask associated with a first angle of the plurality of angles is different than a scan mask associated with a second angle of the plurality of angles that is different from the first angle;
• and
• second logic to, for each angle of the plurality of angles, generate an associated data set of the specimen based on a scan by a charged particle microscope of the specimen at the angle in accordance with the associated scan mask;
• wherein:
• for at least on angle of the plurality of angles, the associated data set of the specimen includes at least one zero data region,
• for at least one angle of the plurality of angels, the associated data set of the specimen includes at least one non-zero data region, and
• the at least one non-zero data region has a substantially rectangular boundary.

A charged particle microscope computational support apparatus, comprising:

• first logic to, for each angle of a plurality of angles, generate an associated scan mask for scanning a specimen;
• second logic to, for each angle of the plurality of angles, cause a charged particle microscope to scan the specimen at the angle in accordance with the associated scan mask, and to generate an associated data set of the specimen based on the scan of the specimen at the angle, and wherein the second logic is to, for an individual angle of the plurality of angles, cause a display device to display a graphical representation of an identification of one or more chemical elements present in the specimen at the associated angle;
• and
• third logic to provide, for each angle of the plurality of angles, the associated data set of the specimen to reconstruction logic to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of the specimen.

A charged particle microscope computational support apparatus, comprising:

• first logic to, for each angle of a plurality of angles:
• receive an associated image of a specimen at the angle, and
• generate an associated scan mask based on one or more regions-of-interest in the associated image;
• second logic to, for each angle of the plurality of angles, generate an associated data set of the specimen by processing data from a scan, in accordance with the associated scan mask, by a charged particle microscope of the specimen at the angle;
• third logic to provide, for each angle of the plurality of angles, the associated data set of the specimen to reconstruction logic to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of the specimen;
• and
• fourth logic to, for each angle of the plurality of angles, cause the charged particle microscope to generate the associated image of the specimen at the angle, wherein, for an individual angle of the plurality of angles, a radiation dose for the generation of the associated data set of the specimen at the individual angle in accordance with the associated scan mask is less than a radiation dose for the generation of a full frame data set of the specimen at the individual angle.