A method of determining at least one x-ray scanning system geometric property includes the steps of positioning a calibration device inside a scanning chamber of the scanning device, the chamber being intersected by at least one fan beam of x-rays during a scanning operation, measuring a distance between the calibration device and at least one inner wall of the chamber, scanning the calibration device to produce an image of the calibration device, identifying pixels representing the a geometric feature of the calibration device in the image, determining a position and orientation of the pixels representing the geometric feature in the image and, determining a scanning system property based on the position and orientation of the pixels representing the geometric feature in the image. The position and orientation of the feature in the scanning chamber and the x-ray scanning system property may be determined simultaneously.

There is provided an acquiring method of a projection image of a sample whose shape is uneven with respect to a rotation center, the method comprising the steps of setting the sample S0 at a position of the rotation center C0 provided between an X-ray source 116a and a detector 117, and acquiring the projection image of the sample S0 at each different rotation angle for each different magnification ratio over a rotation angle of 180° or more by rotating the sample S0 around the rotation center C0, and by relatively changing a separation distance between the X-ray source and the rotation center, or a separation distance between the rotation center and the detector in an optical axis direction according to the shape of the sample S0 and the rotation angle of the sample S0.

A system for processing meat pieces includes a radiation inspection apparatus configured to receive a primary stream of meat pieces conveyed by a conveyor and to detect trim products containing undesired objects; a reject device; a control unit configured to operate the reject device using the detected undesired objects as an operation parameter such that the meat pieces containing the undesired objects are separated from the primary stream of trim products; an object remover configured to remove the undesired objects from the meat pieces separated from the primary stream of trim products; and a recirculation apparatus configured to receive the meat pieces after undergoing the object remover and recirculate it as a secondary stream into the radiation inspection apparatus. The secondary stream is separated from the primary stream, and the radiation inspection is configured to detect whether any remaining undesired objects are in the secondary stream.

A sample holder (10) filled with a sample is held in a base member (20), and an airtight member (30) is mounted on the base member (20) so as to cover the surroundings of the sample holder (10), thereby forming a sample holding structure in a closed space. The airtight member (30) includes a fitting portion (35) which is configured to be fitted and mounted in a mounting portion (21).

The present invention is intended to provide improved patterned X-ray emitting targets as well as X-ray sources that include patterned X-ray emitting targets as well as X-ray reflectance scatterometry (XRS) systems and also including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) systems and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) systems which employ such X-ray emitting targets.

A method of analysing granular material in a slurry, the method comprising: compacting the granular material in the slurry to form one or more pucks; irradiating said pucks with X-Ray radiation and detecting X-ray energy transmitted through said one or more irradiated pucks; irradiating a reference material with X-Ray radiation, said reference material having known material characteristics and detecting X-ray energy transmitted through said reference material; comparing X-ray energy transmission through said one or more pucks with the reference material to compute, using a processing unit, one or more particle characteristics of the granular material in the one or more pucks.

Methods and systems for improving a measurement recipe describing a sequence of measurements employed to characterize semiconductor structures are described herein. A measurement recipe is repeatedly updated before a queue of measurements defined by the previous measurement recipe is fully executed. In some examples, an improved measurement recipe identifies a minimum set of measurement options that increases wafer throughput while meeting measurement uncertainty requirements. In some examples, measurement recipe optimization is controlled to trade off measurement robustness and measurement time. This enables flexibility in the case of outliers and process excursions. In some examples, measurement recipe optimization is controlled to minimize any combination of measurement uncertainty, measurement time, move time, and target dose. In some examples, a measurement recipe is updated while measurement data is being collected. In some examples, a measurement recipe is updated at a site while data is collected at another site.

A method of quantitatively analyzing a carbon based hybrid negative electrode including the steps of preparing a secondary battery including a carbon based hybrid negative electrode, where the carbon based hybrid negative electrode comprises a carbon based negative electrode active material and a non-carbon based negative electrode active material, measuring a lattice d-spacing of the carbon based negative electrode active material in the carbon based hybrid negative electrode during charging/discharging of the secondary battery using an X-ray diffractometer and then plotting a graph of a change in lattice d-spacing value as a function of charge/discharge capacity, detecting an inflection point of a slope of the graph during discharging; and then, quantifying capacity contribution of the carbon based negative electrode active material and the non-carbon based negative electrode active material in the total discharge capacity of the secondary battery by the inflection point of the slope of the graph.

Methods of determining the presence or absence of fluorocarbon(s) on a substrate using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). A method may be used to determine the presence or absence of per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances PFASs. A method may use a porous polymer substrate. A method may use solid-phase extraction (SPE). A method may be used to determine the presence or absence of fluorocarbons in an aqueous sample. An aqueous sample may be a groundwater sample, wastewater sample, potable water sample, drinking water sample, or surface water sample. The limit of detection of fluorine in a method may be 0.05% F or less (for XPS analysis) and/or 20 ng or less on a substrate.

A detection scheme for x-ray small angle scattering is described. An x-ray small angle scattering apparatus may include a first grating and a complementary second grating. The first grating includes a plurality of first grating cells. The complementary second grating includes a plurality of second grating cells. The second grating is positioned relative to the first grating. A configuration of the first grating, a configuration of the second grating and the relative positioning of the gratings are configured to pass one or more small angle scattered photons and to block one or more Compton scattered photons and one or more main x-ray photons.