Multi-beam particle microscope and method for operating same

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;
• and
• b) 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.