JPH04355040A - Sample image display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clearly discriminate a line image by maximizing or minimizing brightness of a profile line at monochrome display time, equally decreasing the brightness so that a surface image obtains the maximum brightness or less or more, and additionally providing a line of different color in one or both sides of the line when in a color display. CONSTITUTION:A surface of a sample 16 is two-dimensionally scanned by an accelerated electron beam 10 from a filament, not shown, to detect at a time a plurality of element proper X-rays by using a detector 13 consisting of a plurality of single color X-ray analyzers, and an X-ray intensity of the corresponding element, that is, a signal in accordance with a font number is output to the detector 13 having a plurality of channels. Next, this signal is amplified, fed to an A/D converter 17, converted into a digital data and fed to a corresponding image memory 18. At this time, also a data, representing a beam position from a beam controller 12 of controlling a scanning coil 11, is added to the memory 18 to obtain an address corresponding to a beam position, where a concentration data of the memory is gathered, and this address is stored in a display memory 19.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to devices such as electron microanalyzers (EPMA), scanning electron microscopes (SEM), and secondary ion mass spectrometers (SIMS) that obtain surface information and line information about samples. Regarding display devices,
In particular, the present invention relates to a display device having a function of displaying surface information and line information in a superimposed manner on the same screen.

0002

[Prior Art] For example, in EPMA, the areal concentration distribution of a certain element (for example, carbon C) on the surface of a sample is displayed on a CRT as a monochromatic (monochrome) map, as shown in FIG. 3(a). At the same time, a concentration distribution curve (concentration profile) on an arbitrary straight line (analysis position line) on the screen can be displayed at the same time. In the monochrome map, it is possible to quantitatively understand the element concentration to some extent by the shading of the display, but by displaying the concentration profile, it is possible to more quantitatively understand the difference in carbon concentration between the land area and the island area. and become intuitively understandable. In addition to this, various devices have the ability to simultaneously display surface images and line images, such as simultaneous display of surface unevenness images and line analysis results, simultaneous display of surface unevenness images and cross-sectional shapes (shape profiles), etc. It is equipped.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, when displaying a surface image representing the surface distribution of carbon concentration on a monochrome screen and a line image representing the profile of carbon concentration on a specific line in a superimposed manner, it is necessary to may pass through a part of the area distribution (if this part is isolated, it is called an "island") that has the same brightness. In such a case,
Inside that region (or island), the profile line is buried in the background, giving the profile line a discontinuous appearance. Even if the brightness is not the same, if the brightness falls within a region where the brightness is similar, it becomes extremely difficult to identify the profile line.

[0004] A similar problem also occurs in the case of color display. In the case of color display, in which the results of area analysis of multiple elements are superimposed on the same screen by assigning a different color to each element, the line analysis results (concentration profile) of a specific element are further superimposed and displayed. Sometimes, of course, a different color is used than the color assigned to each element. However, depending on the location, since a plurality of elements are mixed, the colors of each element are mixed, resulting in an area having the same color as the profile line. In this case as well, the problem arises that the profile line appears broken and identification becomes extremely difficult. The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and its purpose is to always clearly distinguish and identify line images when outputting a plane image and a line image on the screen simultaneously. The object of the present invention is to provide a display method that allows display in a possible form.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the first method of the present invention, which has been accomplished to solve the above problems, a surface image obtained by scanning a sample surface two-dimensionally and a surface image obtained by scanning the sample surface one-dimensionally are used. When superimposing the obtained line image on the same screen and displaying it in monochrome, (a) the brightness of the line image display is set to approximately the maximum value or approximately the minimum value, and (b) the brightness of the plane image display is set to (i
) When the line image is set to approximately the maximum brightness, (ii)
The present invention is characterized in that when the line image is set to substantially the lowest brightness, the lowest brightness of the plane image is set to be equal to or higher than the brightness of the line image display.

In addition, in the second method of the present invention, a surface image obtained by two-dimensionally scanning the sample surface and a line image obtained by one-dimensionally scanning the sample surface are superimposed on the same screen to produce a color image. When displaying, (c) the line image is displayed in one color, and (d
) Adjacent pixels on at least one side of the line image are displayed in one color different from that of the line image.

[0007]

[Operation] The first method is effective when performing monochrome display, and line images always have higher brightness (
Since the line image is displayed at low brightness), the line image is not buried in the surface image, and the line image can always be clearly identified. The second method is effective when displaying in color; in this case, even if the color of the line image matches the color of the area image in a certain part, the color next to the line image is of a different color. Because the lines are displayed in parallel,
This adjacent line allows the line image to be clearly distinguished from the surface image that is the background.

[0008] The term "one-dimensional scanning" used herein includes data obtained secondarily from data obtained by two-dimensional scanning. Furthermore, "color" in the second method includes achromatic colors (black, gray, white).

[0009]

[Example] An example of the first method of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.
This is explained by: FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an EPMA. An electron beam 10 emitted from a filament (not shown) and accelerated is sent to a sample 16 by a scanning coil 11.
(the sample 16 may be moved instead of moving the electron beam 10). The surface of the sample irradiated with the electron beam 10 emits X-rays specific to the elements contained in that part, and are detected by the detector 13.

In this embodiment, the detector 13 consists of a plurality of monochromatic X-ray analyzers, and can detect the characteristic X-rays of a plurality of elements at once. Each single color X that constitutes the detector 13
The ray analyzer outputs a signal to the amplifier 14 according to the intensity (number of photons) of the characteristic X-ray of the corresponding element. Amplifier 14
is also divided into multiple channels, each with a single color
The signal from the line analyzer is amplified and converted into an A/D converter (AD
C) Send to 17.

Analog signals representing the concentration of each element outputted from each X-ray analyzer of the detector 13 are converted into digital data by the A/D converter 17, and stored in the corresponding image memory i (i=1 to n). 18 is temporarily stored. At this time, data representing the beam position is also sent from the beam controller 12 that controls the scanning coil 11 to each image memory 18, and the concentration data of each element is stored in the image memory 18 at the beam position where the concentration data was collected. is stored at the address corresponding to . When the surface analysis of a predetermined region of the sample 16 is completed in this way, the plurality of image memories 18 store data representing the surface distribution of the concentration of a plurality of elements.

In addition to the raw data analyzed in this way, the image memory 18 also stores plane images or line images generated by processing the raw data by an image analysis device (not shown). In this way multiple image memories (
The image data stored in 1 to n) 18 can be arbitrarily combined and displayed on the same screen. When the operator instructs a combination of images from an input device such as a keyboard (not shown), the display controller 15 reads out the data of the instructed images from each image memory 18, adds them together, and stores them in the display memory 19. The image data in the display memory 19 is directly converted into a normal analog image signal by a D/A converter (DAC) 20 and displayed on the screen of the CRT 21.

An example of the display of analysis results is shown in FIG. 3(a). In this example, the results of two-dimensional concentration analysis of one element and the one-dimensional concentration distribution (concentration profile) of that element on a certain straight line (analysis position line) are displayed in monochrome on the same screen. It is. In a surface image representing a two-dimensional concentration distribution, the element concentration at each point is divided into three levels, and these are represented by differences in brightness (gradation) (in Figure 3 (a), high brightness areas are hatched with darker hatching). ). This makes it possible to understand at a glance where in the sample the element is especially ubiquitous.

The concentration profile is displayed on the same screen in order to more quantitatively understand the ubiquity of this element and also to clarify the positional relationship with area analysis. As mentioned above, the concentration profile is a one-dimensional concentration distribution of the element on the analysis position line, but the concentration data may be created by processing from the area analysis data stored in the image memory 18, or it may be created separately and again. The sample may be collected by scanning the electron beam 10 and performing line analysis. In any case, the profile data is stored in an image memory 18 separate from the image memory 18 that stores the surface analysis results.

However, the density profile line (represented as a high-brightness line on the actual screen, but the black line in FIG. 3(a)) is a high-density portion (although it is a high-brightness portion on the actual screen,
If the profile line overlaps the darkly hatched area (in FIG. 3A), the profile line will be hidden in the density distribution image. In order to show this situation more clearly, FIG. 3(b) shows the CRT21
The luminance distribution on the vertical line VL of the screen is shown.

Therefore, in the EPMA of this embodiment, when displaying profile lines at the same time, the brightness of the plane image serving as the background is uniformly lowered, while the profile lines are displayed at the highest brightness (
(white). As a result, as shown in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), the density profile line is displayed so as to stand out from the surface image, and is always clearly identified. Note that the brightness of the surface image can be lowered uniformly by 1.
/a (a>1), or the background portion may be uniformly subtracted.

Next, an embodiment corresponding to the second method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, the surface analysis results of three different elements collected by the EPMA surface analysis of the above example are displayed simultaneously but in different primary colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) on the same screen. do. Specifically, if the concentration of a certain element at a certain point is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, that point is displayed in a corresponding color;
If the color is below the threshold, that color is not displayed. By doing this, the area where the concentration of a certain element is above the threshold value can be reduced to 2.
It can be displayed dimensionally. By similarly displaying the other two elements in their respective colors, it is possible to know not only the independent concentration distribution of each element but also the distribution of compounds formed by two or more elements.

However, in this multi-element plane distribution display, it is only known whether the element concentration is above or below a threshold value, so in order to quantitatively understand the concentration distribution of a certain element,
A function is provided to display a profile of concentration distribution on an arbitrary straight line in the same manner as in the above embodiment. At this time, if the display color of the profile is set to one of the primary colors, the profile line may naturally be hidden in the surface analysis results, but even if it is set to a color other than the primary color, there will be areas where two or more types of elements are mixed. In this case, the profile line may become difficult to identify.

Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
A line (referred to as an additional line) in a different color from the profile line is displayed below the profile line (and analysis position line). Specifically, the display controller 15 transfers the data in the image memory 18 that stores density distribution data (plane image) to the display memory 19, and then transfers the data in the image memory 18 that stores profile line data (line image). When overwriting the display memory 19, C
Data of a different color is uniformly written to addresses corresponding to pixels located below the profile line on the RT screen. By doing this, even if the profile line enters an area where elements are mixed and is buried in the area analysis display, you can easily locate the profile line by selecting a completely different color (such as a complementary color) for the additional line. are clearly identified. Conversely, when the additional line enters a region where it is buried, the original profile line can be clearly identified, so no matter which region the profile line passes through, the profile line can be clearly identified.

Note that the additional line may be provided not only on one side of the profile line but also on both sides. In that case, the colors of the additional lines on both sides may be different from each other.

[0021]

[Effects of the Invention] In the sample image display method according to the present invention, by providing a difference in brightness between a plane image and a line image in the case of a monochrome display, and adding lines of different colors in the case of a color display. , to make line images stand out from area images. Therefore, no matter which region of the plane image the line image (profile line) passes through, the line image can always be clearly identified.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an EPMA that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view (a) showing the screen display when the profile line is displayed by the first method of the present invention in the EPMA of the embodiment, and a graph (a) showing the luminance distribution on the line VL.
b).

FIG. 3 is a plan view (a) showing a screen display when a profile line is displayed using a conventional method, and a graph (b) showing a luminance distribution on the line VL.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a screen display when profile lines are displayed according to the second method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10...electron beam
11...Scanning coil 12...Beam controller 1
3...X-ray detector 14...amplifier
15...Display controller 16...Sample
17...A/D converter (ADC) 18...Image memory (1 to n) 19...Display memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: When a surface image obtained by two-dimensionally scanning a sample surface and a line image obtained by one-dimensionally scanning the sample surface are superimposed on the same screen and displayed in monochrome, the line image display is In addition to setting the brightness to approximately the maximum value or approximately the minimum value, the brightness of the area image display is set so that when the line image is set to approximately the maximum brightness, the maximum brightness of the area image is equal to or less than the brightness of the line image display. A method for displaying a sample image, characterized in that when the line image is set to approximately the lowest brightness, the lowest brightness of the surface image is set to be equal to or higher than the brightness of the line image display. 2. When superimposing and color displaying a surface image obtained by two-dimensionally scanning the sample surface and a line image obtained by one-dimensionally scanning the sample surface on the same screen, the line image is A method for displaying a sample image, characterized by displaying the line image in color and displaying adjacent pixels on at least one side of the line image in one color different from that of the line image.