Scanning Microscope Having an Adaptive Scan
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of using a scanning microscope to rapidly form an image of a specimen, comprising:
- performing an initial scan or set of scans of a first area composed of a first set of pixels to determine a first gray level for each of the pixels in the first set;
analyzing the first gray levels of the pixels in the first set to identify first regions representing structures of interest in said area, said first regions including fewer pixels than the number of pixels in the first set; and
performing additional scans of said regions to determine second gray level values of only pixels of said regions, the second gray level values being determined by integrating more scans than the number of scans used to determine the first gray levels, thereby improving the accuracy of the measured gray level value of pixels in the regions while including fewer pixels in the additional scans.
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Abstract
A method of using a scanning microscope to rapidly form a digital image of an area. The method includes performing an initial set of scans to form a guide pixel set for the area and using the guide pixel set to identify regions representing structures of interest in the area. Then, performing additional scans of the regions representing structures of interest, to gather further data to further evaluate pixels in the regions, and not scanning elsewhere in the area.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of using a scanning microscope to rapidly form an image of a specimen, comprising:
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performing an initial scan or set of scans of a first area composed of a first set of pixels to determine a first gray level for each of the pixels in the first set; analyzing the first gray levels of the pixels in the first set to identify first regions representing structures of interest in said area, said first regions including fewer pixels than the number of pixels in the first set; and performing additional scans of said regions to determine second gray level values of only pixels of said regions, the second gray level values being determined by integrating more scans than the number of scans used to determine the first gray levels, thereby improving the accuracy of the measured gray level value of pixels in the regions while including fewer pixels in the additional scans. - View Dependent Claims (20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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2. -12. (canceled)
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13. A method of forming an image using a scanning beam, comprising:
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scanning a field of view to determine pixel values in the field of view; analyzing the pixel values to determine a subset of pixels that represent a feature of interest; and performing additional scans over only the subset of pixels to produce an image of the feature of interest. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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14. -19. (canceled)
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21. -22. (canceled)
Specification