JP2001068050A - Image display device for scanning electron microscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image display device for a scanning electron microscope, capable of printing the accurate magnification together with an image, even when the image is printed in any desired size. SOLUTION: A CPU control device for this image display device controls an image memory 11 and a printer control circuit 16, after the image printing conditions are set in an operation means 15. Together with the image signals, the dimensional information of the image (the number of pixels per image length, etc.), and the information of a magnification M included in the observing condition data (magnification of the image displayed in a display device 13) are supplied from the memory 11 to the printer control circuit 16. The control circuit 16 calculates a magnification M' at printing from the magnification M given by the memory 11, a dimension D of the screen of a display device 14, and a dimension D' of the image at printing given by the CPU control circuit 14. The control circuit 16 supplies to the printer 17 the magnification information at printing determined through calculation and the image signal given by the image memory 11. The printer 17 prints the image in the specified region on a sheet of paper and also a relevant scale S and the magnification M'.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image display device of a scanning electron microscope which displays a scanned image on a display device and prints the scanned image on the display device by a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a scanning electron microscope, an electron beam from an electron gun is focused on a sample by a condenser lens and an objective lens, and the electron beam is two-dimensionally scanned.
Then, 2 generated by irradiating the sample with the electron beam.
A secondary electron or the like is detected and a detection signal is supplied to a display device synchronized with the scanning of the electron beam to obtain a scanned image of the sample.

In such a scanning electron microscope, recently, a detection signal is stored in an image file such as a frame memory, and a sample image is displayed based on a signal read from the image file. Further, a sample image is printed by a printer based on a signal from an image file.

[0004]

When observing the obtained image in such a scanning electron microscope, it is necessary to visually judge the actual size of the image to be observed. For this reason, the magnification at that time is displayed on the obtained image, and a scale representing a specific length is displayed together with the image.

For the display of the magnification, a value uniquely determined from the size of the scanning area of the electron beam on the sample and the size of the screen of the display device is used. When printing an image, the image is pasted on an experiment report or the like. In this case, the size of the image can be arbitrarily set. Therefore, if a magnification uniquely determined from the size of the scanning area of the electron beam on the sample and the size of the screen of the display device is printed together with the print image, accurate magnification display will not be achieved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a scanning electron microscope capable of printing an image with an accurate magnification even when the image is printed in an arbitrary size. To realize the image display device.

[0007]

An image display device of a scanning electron microscope according to the first invention focuses an electron beam finely on a sample and scans the electron beam two-dimensionally in an arbitrary area on the sample. Then, an image signal obtained from the sample is stored in an image file, and an image signal from the image file is stored in an image display device of a scanning electron microscope configured to display a scan image of the sample on a display device based on the image signal. The printer is configured to print a scanned image on the basis of the image, and a correction magnification corresponding to the size of the image at the time of printing is calculated based on the dimensional information and the magnification information of the image on the display device. It is characterized in that it is configured to print together.

In the first invention, when a scanned image is printed, a correction magnification corresponding to the size of the image at the time of printing is calculated based on the size information and the magnification information of the image on the display device, and the correction magnification is calculated. Is printed with the scanned image and the correct magnification is printed with the image.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image display apparatus for a scanning electron microscope according to the first aspect, wherein a text file is prepared in the image file, the image file includes dimension information of the display device image, and the text file is displayed. It is characterized in that magnification information of a device image is included.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a scanning electron microscope according to the present invention. An electron beam EB generated from an electron gun 1 and accelerated is narrowly focused on a sample 4 by a condenser lens 2 and an objective lens 3. The electron beam is further applied to a desired area of the sample 4 by a scanning coil 5.
Scanned dimensionally. A scan signal from a scan signal generation circuit 6 is supplied to the scan coil 5 via a scan drive circuit 7.

Secondary electrons generated by irradiating the sample 4 with the electron beam EB are detected by a secondary electron detector 8, and a detection signal is amplified by an amplifier 9. Amplifier 9
Are converted into digital signals by the AD converter 10 and then supplied to the image memory 11 for storage. The signal stored in the image memory 11 is read out and supplied to the display device 13 via the DA converter 12. As a result, a scan image of the sample is displayed on the display device 13.

The scanning signal generating circuit 6 is controlled by a controller 14 such as a CPU according to the magnification. That is,
When the magnification is high, the amplitude of the scanning signal is reduced, and when the magnification is low, the amplitude of the scanning signal is controlled to increase. The CPU control circuit 14 is connected to operation means 15 such as a keyboard and a pointing device.

Further, the CPU control circuit 14 controls the image memory 11 and also controls the printer control circuit 16 connected to the image memory 11. Image memory 11
Are supplied to the printer 17 via the printer control circuit 16. The operation of such a configuration will now be described.

When observing a secondary electron image, the operation means 1
5 is used to set an arbitrary magnification. Based on the set magnification, the control circuit 14 controls the scanning signal generation circuit 6 to generate a scanning signal according to the magnification from the scanning circuit.
The scanning signal from the scanning signal generation circuit 6
, The electron beam EB is two-dimensionally scanned in a range according to the magnification on the sample 4.

Secondary electrons generated by irradiating the sample 4 with the electron beam EB are detected by a secondary electron detector 8. After the detection signal of the detector 8 is converted into a digital signal by the AD converter 10, it is stored in the image memory 11 as an image signal in synchronization with the scanning of the electron beam.

The image memory 11 has a CPU control circuit 1
4, magnification information is also supplied and stored. The image signal stored in the image memory 7 and the scale signal and the magnification value signal, which are magnification information, are read out and sent to the DA converter 12 having a graphic user interface (GUI) function for controlling display display. Supplied.

Various signals from the DA converter 12 are supplied to a display device 13, and as a result, as shown in FIG. 2, a scan image I of a sample and a specific length are displayed on a display screen 18 of the display device 13. And a magnification value M (× 100,00
0) is displayed.

Next, a case where the scanned image displayed on the display device 13 is printed by the printer 17 will be described. In this case, the size of the image to be printed is arbitrarily set by the operation unit 15. For this setting, for example,
The print area is displayed on the display device 13, a frame is displayed in the print area, and the size of the image to be printed is set by arbitrarily adjusting the size of the frame.

The CPU control circuit 14 controls the image memory 11 and the printer control circuit 16 after the image printing conditions are set by the operation means 15. Image memory 11
In addition to the image signal, the dimensional information of the image (information such as the number of pixels with respect to the length of the image) and the information of the magnification (magnification of the image displayed on the display device 13) M included in the observation condition data are controlled by the printer control. It is supplied to the circuit 16.

The printer control circuit 16 prints the image based on the magnification M given from the image memory 11, the size D of the screen of the display device 14, and the size D 'of the image at the time of printing given from the CPU control circuit 14. The magnification M ′ at the time is calculated. This calculation is performed by the following equation.

M ′ = M × (D ′ / D) The printer control circuit 16 supplies the magnification information at the time of printing obtained by calculation together with the image signal from the image memory 11 to the printer 17. The printer 17 prints the image on the designated area of the sheet and prints the scale S and the magnification M ′. FIG. 3 shows an example of printing, in which an image I is printed on the paper 19, and a scale S and a magnification M ′ (× 50,000) are printed together with this image. This magnification M '
Is a correct value based on the image size at the time of printing and the scanning range of the electron beam on the sample.

An example of the data configuration from the image memory 11 includes an image file such as BMP and TIFF, and a text file containing observation condition data and magnification information M. Information D is included.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. For example, although a CPU control circuit and a printer control circuit are provided, various processes may be performed by a single control circuit.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a scanned image is printed, the correction magnification corresponding to the image size at the time of printing is determined based on the image size information and magnification information on the display device. Is calculated and the corrected magnification is printed together with the scanned image, so that the correct magnification can be printed together with the image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a scanning electron microscope according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of printing by a printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electron gun 2 Condenser lens 3 Objective lens 4 Sample 5 Scan coil 6 Scan signal generation circuit 7 Scan drive circuit 8 Secondary electron detector 9 Amplifier 10 A / D converter 11 Image memory 12 D / A converter 13 Display device 14 CPU control circuit 15 Operating means 16 Printer control circuit 17 Printer

Claims (2)

[Claims] An electron beam is narrowly focused on a sample, an electron beam is two-dimensionally scanned in an arbitrary region on the sample, and an image signal obtained from the sample is stored in an image file, and the image signal is converted into an image signal. In the image display device of the scanning electron microscope, which is configured to display the scan image of the sample on the display device based on the configuration, the scan image is printed on the printer based on the image signal from the image file, An image display device of a scanning electron microscope configured to calculate a correction magnification according to an image size at the time of printing based on image size information and magnification information, and to print the correction magnification together with a scan image. 2. A text file is prepared in the image file, and the image file includes dimensional information of the display device image.
2. The image display device of a scanning electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein magnification information of the display device image is included in the text file.