Controlled trigger and image restoration for high speed probe card analysis

Most microelectronics devices and circuits operate faster, consume less power, execute more functions and cost less per circuit function when the feature-sizes internal to the devices and circuits are made smaller. This is part of the stimulus for the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) program. There is also a need for smaller, more sensitive sensors in a wide range of disciplines that includes electrochemistry, neurophysiology and ultra-high pressure solid state research. There is often fundamental new science (and sometimes new technology) to be revealed (and used) when a basic parameter such as size is extended to new dimensions, as is evident at the two extremes of smallness and largeness, high energy particle physics and cosmology, respectively. However, there is also a very important intermediate domain of size that spans from the diameter of a small cluster of atoms up to near one micrometer which may also have just as profound effects on society as “big” physics.

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Vacuum System to Minimize the Specimen Contamination of High-Performance EM

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100077967 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 68-69

Author(s):

N. Yoshimura ◽

K. Shirota ◽

T. Etoh

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscope ◽

High Speed ◽

High Performance ◽

High Vacuum ◽

Vacuum System ◽

Pump System ◽

Pumping System ◽

Diffusion Pump ◽

Almost All ◽

Cascade Type

One of the most important requirements for a high-performance EM, especially an analytical EM using a fine beam probe, is to prevent specimen contamination by providing a clean high vacuum in the vicinity of the specimen. However, in almost all commercial EMs, the pressure in the vicinity of the specimen under observation is usually more than ten times higher than the pressure measured at the punping line. The EM column inevitably requires the use of greased Viton O-rings for fine movement, and specimens and films need to be exchanged frequently and several attachments may also be exchanged. For these reasons, a high speed pumping system, as well as a clean vacuum system, is now required. A newly developed electron microscope, the JEM-100CX features clean high vacuum in the vicinity of the specimen, realized by the use of a CASCADE type diffusion pump system which has been essentially improved over its predeces- sorD employed on the JEM-100C.

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Analysis of 3-d molecular distribution with the digital imaging microscope

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100102286 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 40-41

Author(s):

W.A. Carrington ◽

F.S. Fay ◽

K.E. Fogarty ◽

L. Lifshitz

Keyword(s):

Image Restoration ◽

Digital Imaging ◽

Fluorescent Dyes ◽

Optical Axis ◽

Computer Hardware ◽

Computer Algorithms ◽

Low Contrast ◽

Specific Proteins ◽

Effective Use ◽

Single Living Cells

Advances in digital imaging microscopy and in the synthesis of fluorescent dyes allow the determination of 3D distribution of specific proteins, ions, GNA or DNA in single living cells. Effective use of this technology requires a combination of optical and computer hardware and software for image restoration, feature extraction and computer graphics.The digital imaging microscope consists of a conventional epifluorescence microscope with computer controlled focus, excitation and emission wavelength and duration of excitation. Images are recorded with a cooled (-80°C) CCD. 3D images are obtained as a series of optical sections at .25 - .5 μm intervals.A conventional microscope has substantial blurring along its optical axis. Out of focus contributions to a single optical section cause low contrast and flare; details are poorly resolved along the optical axis. We have developed new computer algorithms for reversing these distortions. These image restoration techniques and scanning confocal microscopes yield significantly better images; the results from the two are comparable.

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The on-line use of histogram data for high-speed correction and alignment of electron microscope images

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100112713 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 556-557

Author(s):

William Krakow

Keyword(s):

Power Spectrum ◽

High Speed ◽

Direct Memory Access ◽

Digital Television ◽

Contrast Transfer Function ◽

The Past ◽

High Resolution Tem ◽

On Line ◽

Correction Of Astigmatism ◽

The Fourier Transform

In the past few years on-line digital television frame store devices coupled to computers have been employed to attempt to measure the microscope parameters of defocus and astigmatism. The ultimate goal of such tasks is to fully adjust the operating parameters of the microscope and obtain an optimum image for viewing in terms of its information content. The initial approach to this problem, for high resolution TEM imaging, was to obtain the power spectrum from the Fourier transform of an image, find the contrast transfer function oscillation maxima, and subsequently correct the image. This technique requires a fast computer, a direct memory access device and even an array processor to accomplish these tasks on limited size arrays in a few seconds per image. It is not clear that the power spectrum could be used for more than defocus correction since the correction of astigmatism is a formidable problem of pattern recognition.

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