Methods and systems for tomographic microscopy imaging
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsAndreas Voigt, Trond Varslot, Magda Zaoralová
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method for acquiring tomographic images of a sample in a microscopy system, wherein the sample comprises a defined region, and wherein the method comprises determining a location in three-dimensional space of the defined region, wherein the method further comprises capturing an image of at least a part of the sample, and wherein the determination of the location in three-dimensional space of the defined region is based, at least in part, on the image of the part of the sample. The present invention also relates to a corresponding microscopy system and a computer program product to perform the method according to the present invention.
Claims16
A method for acquiring tomographic images of a sample in a microscopy system,
- wherein the sample comprises a defined region including an exposure region having features that are of interest for imaging, and
- wherein the method comprises:
- capturing an image of at least a part of the sample;
- and
- determining a location in three-dimensional space of the defined region by:
- determining a first configuration, in a projection space, of a first feature of the sample in three-dimensional space relative to a configuration of a second feature of the sample in three-dimensional space,
- determining a second configuration of a third feature in the part of the sample in three-dimensional space relative to a configuration of a fourth feature in the part of the sample in three-dimensional space,
- comparing the relative configuration of the third feature and the fourth feature in the image of the part of sample to the relative configuration of the first feature and the second feature in the projection space to determine an angle between an axis of the sample and a tilt axis of a stage on which the sample is positioned, and
- determining the location in three-dimensional space of the defined region based, at least in part, on the comparison of the relative configuration of the third feature and the fourth feature in the image of the part of the sample to the relative configuration of the first feature and the second feature in the projection space and the determination of the angle between the axis of the sample and the tilt axis of the stage;
- and
- positioning a beam of particles over the exposure region based on the determined location in three-dimensional space of the exposure region.
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when run on a data processing unit of a microscopy system, perform a method of:
- capturing an image of at least a part of a sample, the sample having a defined region including an exposure region having features that are of interest for imaging,
- determining a location in three-dimensional space of the defined region of the sample by:
- determining a first configuration, in a projection space, of a first feature of the sample in three-dimensional space relative to a configuration of a second feature of the sample in three-dimensional space,
- determining a second configuration of a third feature in the part of the sample in three-dimensional space relative to a configuration of a fourth feature in the part of the sample in three-dimensional space,
- comparing the relative configuration of the third feature and the fourth feature in the image of the part of sample to the relative configuration of the first feature and the second feature in the projection space to determine an angle between an axis of the sample and a tilt axis of a stage on which the sample is positioned, and
- determining the location in three-dimensional space of the defined region based, at least in part, on the comparison of the relative configuration of the third feature and the fourth feature in the image of the part of the sample to the relative configuration of the first feature and the second feature in the projection space and the determination of the angle between the axis of the sample and the tilt axis of the stage;
- and
- positioning a beam of particles over the exposure region based on the determined location in three-dimensional space of the exposure region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.