Abstract
There is disclosed a hybrid arrangement of more than one electron energy conversion mechanism in a detector arranged physically such that the electron image can be acquired from both energy converters in such a manner that selected high-illumination parts of the image can be imaged with an indirectly coupled scintillator detector and the remainder of the image acquired with the high-sensitivity/direct electron portion of the detector without readjustments in the beam position or mechanical positioning of the detector parts. Further, a mechanism to allow dynamically switchable or simultaneous linear and counted signal processing from each pixel of the image so that high-illumination areas can be acquired linearly without the severe dose rate limitation of counting and low-illumination regions can be acquired with counting, the switchover point determined by the dose rate at which signal quality breaks even between linear and counting modes.
Claims
1. A hybrid energy-conversion detector (HECD) for receiving a beam of electron radiation having predetermined high and low illumination intensity portions, the detector comprising: an energy converting scintillator exposed to the high illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation, said scintillator generating light from said high illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation; an image sensor that includes: a first image sensor portion arranged and adapted for receiving said light from said energy converting scintillator and for processing an image; and a second image sensor portion arranged and adapted for directly receiving the low illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation and for processing an image, wherein said scintillator is exposed to the high illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation, and wherein said second sensor portion is exposed to said low intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation and wherein said exposure of said first image sensor portion to said light and said exposure of said second sensor portion to the low illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation occurs at least in part simultaneously.
2. The HECD of claim 1, wherein said first and second image sensor portions are on a single silicon device.
3. The HECD of claim 1, wherein said scintillator is coupled via optics to said first image sensor portion.
4. The HECD of claim 3, wherein said second image sensor portion is substantially shielded from direct high energy electron exposure.
5. The HECD of claim 1, wherein said first and second image sensor portions are read out simultaneously.
6. The HECD of claim 1, wherein said first and second image sensor portions are read out independently.
7. The HECD of claim 1, wherein said first and second image sensor portions comprise separate silicon devices.
8. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said scintillator is applied directly to the silicon device comprising said second image sensor portion in an area expected to receive the high illumination intensity portion of the beam of electron radiation and wherein the light image produced by said scintillator is projected by optics onto said first image sensor portion.
9. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said scintillator is located on an electron entry surface of the silicon device comprising said second image sensor portion.
10. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said second image sensor portion is a thinned direct detection device having a directly exposed surface and a back surface behind said directly exposed surface and wherein said scintillator is located on said back surface.
11. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said scintillator is mounted not in contact with said second image sensor portion.
12. The HECD of claim 2, wherein said scintillator is mounted in front of said single silicon device so as to cover said first image sensor portion, said front being the surface of said single silicon device directly exposed to said beam of electron radiation.
13. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said scintillator is mounted next to said second image sensor portion.
14. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said first and second image sensor portions are read out simultaneously.
15. The HECD of claim 7, wherein said first and second image sensor portions are read out independently.
Description
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) FIG. 1A is an image relating to the prior art;
(2) FIG. 1B is a graph of intensity for the image in FIG. 1B;
(3) FIG. 2A is a graph relating to the prior art;
(4) FIG. 2B is a graph relating to the prior art;
(5) FIG. 3A is a prior art indirect detector coupling design;
(6) FIG. 3B is a prior art indirect detector coupling design;
(7) FIG. 3C is a prior art direct detector design;
(8) FIG. 3D is a prior art direct detector design;
(9) FIG. 4A is a diagram of electron detection;
(10) FIG. 4B is a diagram of electron detection
(11) FIG. 4C is a diagram of electron detection
(12) FIG. 4D is a diagram showing electron detection event signal processing;
(13) FIG. 4E is a diagram showing electron detection event signal processing;
(14) FIG. 5 is a graph describing the prior art direct detector, prior art electron counting and of prior art electron centroiding using detective quantum efficiency (DQU) as a measure of sensitivity.
(15) FIG. 6 are two images showing the effect of high speed readout to separate events into different frames (left) and the effect of counting those events (right);
(16) FIG. 7A shows a hybrid detector design using a fiber-optically coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic detector array;
(17) FIG. 7B shows a hybrid detector design using a fiber-optically coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic thinned detector array;
(18) FIG. 7C shows a hybrid detector design using a fiber-optically coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic back-illuminated thinned detector array;
(19) FIG. 7D shows a hybrid detector design using a lens-coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic front- (or back-) illuminated thinned detector array;
(20) FIG. 7E shows a hybrid detector design using a fiber-optically coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic thinned detector array with coordinated simultaneous readout of both optically-coupled and direct detection portions of the detector;
(21) FIG. 7F shows a hybrid detector design using a fiber-optically coupled scintillator on part of the monolithic thinned detector array with independent simultaneous readout of both optically-coupled and direct detection portions of the detector;
(22) FIG. 8A shows a dual detector having a scintillator in contact with and on top of a direct detector with the scintillator being optically coupled to a second detector;
(23) FIG. 8B shows a dual detector having a scintillator in contact with and below a direct back-illuminated detector with the scintillator being coupled by a skewed fiber bundle to a second detector;
(24) FIG. 8C shows a dual detector having a scintillator in contact with and below a direct thinned back-illuminated detector with the scintillator being coupled by a mirror and optical lenses to a second detector;
(25) FIG. 9A shows a dual detector having a scintillator not in contact with and in front of a direct detector, lens coupled to a separate optical sensor with means for synchronizing the two detectors;
(26) FIG. 9B shows a dual detector having a scintillator-coupled indirect detector next to and in close proximity to a direct back-illuminated detector with the scintillator being coupled by a skewed fiber bundle to enable the very close juxtaposition of the electron detection planes of the two detectors, with means for synchronizing the two detectors;
(27) FIG. 10A shows an exemplary hybrid energy conversion detector with three types of data read out simultaneously from three separate regions of the detector; and
(28) FIG. 10B shows a further exemplary hybrid energy conversion detector with three types of data read out simultaneously from three separate regions of the detector in such a way that both the counted and the linearly read direction detection data is merged to allow optimal integration of both types of data.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(29) In an embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed a hybrid arrangement of more than one electron energy conversion mechanism in a detector arranged physically such that the electron image can be acquired from both energy converters in such a manner that selected high-illumination parts of the image can be imaged with an indirectly coupled scintillator detector and the remainder of the image acquired with the high-sensitivity/direct electron portion of the detector without readjustments in the beam position or mechanical positioning of the detector parts.
(30) Further, a mechanism is included in the signal processor to allow dynamic switching between counted and linear readout modes so that high-illumination areas can be acquired linearly without the severe dose rate limitation of counting and low-illumination regions can be acquired with counting to provide the very high signal quality needed for low dose and long exposures. Alternatively or in addition, the ability to perform simultaneous linear and counted signal processing from each pixel of the image is provided to allow subsequent selection or combination of linear and counted signals offline after acquisition. Both methods would make use of a switchover illumination intensity above which the transition from counted to linear would be made. The switchover would be the illumination intensity at which the signal quality was the same for counted and linear modes. Signal quality would typically be measured using detective quantum efficiency (DQE), as used in FIG. 5 to compare different detectors. DQE of a counting detector begins to degrade as illumination rate grows above the level of 1 electron per 40 pixels and reaches the level of a linear detector at a dose rate between 1 electron per 20 pixels and 1 electron per 10 pixels. In this manner, each pixel in the image can be read out and processed in the most optimal fashion.
(31) Further, because counted and linear modes have different transfer curves (the functional relationship of illumination to counts) and frequency response or modulation transfer function (MTF), signal processing will be provided to remove the intensity and resolution differences between the linear and counted signals. Hybrid detector realizations can be categorized by location of scintillator (in contact with the detector or not, above direct detector or below) by coupling means (fused fiber optic plate or lens-coupling), by which side of the direct detection device is coupled to (front side or back side), by whether the direct detection device is thinned or not, by readout means (single-sensor, all read out together, single sensor with integrated split 5 readout, and dual sensor configurations), by processing means (linear, counted or both). Many combinations of these factors can be envisioned. A number of representative combinations are shown in FIGS. 7-10. FIG. 7A-7D show various options for coupling a scintillator to the direct detection device with the scintillator not in contact with the direct detection device. FIG. 7A shows a scintillator 701 above the device coupled by a fiber optic plate 702 to the frontside 703 of 10 a non-thinned bulk silicon direct detection device 704. FIG. 7B shows the same arrangement as FIG. 7A but coupled to the front-side 705 of a thinned direct detection device 706. FIG. 7C shows a scintillator 701 fiber-optically coupled 702 to the backside 707 of a back-thinned direct detection device 706. And FIG. 7D shows a scintillator 702 lens-optically coupled 708 to a frontside thinned direct detection device. FIGS. 7E and 7F illustrate two possibilities for readout 15 of the direct detection device 706 which could apply to any coupling type or position but are here shown in conjunction with the same fiber-optically coupled scintillator arrangement of FIG. 7B. FIG. 7E shows the detector 706 being read out via a unified and coordinated mechanism 710 that reads out the whole of the device, optically coupled and direct-detection in the same way. FIG. 7F shows a device with the readout split in to two sections 711, 712 at the location of the 20 transition from optical coupling to direct detection. This arrangement would allow for the high-intensity low-loss and zero loss beams to be read out independently and potentially faster than the direct detection portion of the detector. Faster readout would then attenuate the signal strength in each readout of the high-intensity signal and allow a greater dynamic range as a result.
(32) FIGS. 8A through 8C show example configurations which place the scintillator 801 in contact with the direct detection device 802. In these configurations it is necessary to couple the light to a second detector 804 which must be placed out of the way of the incident beam. This is 5 because while light generated in the scintillator can be detected by the direct detector the signal will be overwhelmed by the scattered electron beam which will still be detected by the direct detection device under the scintillator. FIG. 8A shows a possible lens-optical 805 arrangement including a shield 803 to prevent scattered electrons from reaching the optical detector 804. A synchronizer 806 controls readout of the directly exposed detector 803 and the optical detector 10 804. FIG. 8B shows a fiber-optically coupled arrangement with the scintillator 801 beneath the detector 802. The scintillator 801 is coupled to the second detector 804 by a skewed fiber optic plate 807 FIG. 8C shows a lens-optically 805 coupled arrangement with the scintillator 804 beneath the detector 802 and using a mirror 812 to redirect the scintillator image to the second detector. A means of synchronization is provided to allow the outputs of the two detectors to be 15 merged into a single hybrid image. The embodiments shown in FIGS. 7A-F and 8A-C are only representative and do not constitute all possible arrangements using this concept. An example of an extension not shown would be to move the in-contact scintillator to the center of the device for the application of diffraction (FIGS. 1A and 1B) using lens-coupling to avoid occluding any part of the electron image or the creation of backscatter if located under the device.
(33) FIGS. 9A and 9B show arrangements of two detectors arranged without physical contact of either the scintillator 901 or the detector 904. FIG. 9A shows a lens-coupled camera 902 located in front of the direct detection sensor 904 and with optical design 903, 905 so as to minimize dead pixels between optically-coupled 902 and direct-detection sensor 904 s. This design would also serve to minimize scatter of electrons from the scintillator onto the direct-detection portion of the hybrid detector. FIG. 9B shows a possible arrangement of two detectors 902, 904 with detection surfaces in the same plane. The embodiment in Figure B includes a detector 904 designed to minimize dead area, and a shield 907. The scintillator 901 is 5 coupled to the light sensor 902 by a skewed fiber optic bundle. As for the previous cases shown in FIGS. 8A-8C, FIG. 9A shows a synchronizer 906 to control readout of the directly exposed detector 904 and the optical detector comprised of scintillator 901, image sensor 902 and optics 905 and 903.
(34) FIGS. 10A and 10B concern image processing options and the extension of the hybrid concept to cover a combination of both linearly detected and counted data. FIG. 10A shows linear indirect, linear direct and counted direct-detection data being read out by the detector 1001, from the high, medium and low-dose portions of the image or spectrum. The embodiment shown here includes a scintillator 1002 coupled to the detector by a fiber optic bundle 1003. The position of transition from linear direct detection to counted direct detection would be determined by the illumination pattern and the switchover illumination intensity and would therefore vary from one image to the nextand might happen more than once in an image. FIG. 10B shows an arrangement that processes every pixel in the direct detection area both as a linear pixel and with counting or centroiding. While this increases the amount of data which needs to be saved, it creates the possibility of selecting or merging the data offline for a more highly optimized synthesis of data. It should be clear that the above combinations are just representative of a much larger set of combinations.
(35) With respect to FIG. 8, Separate detectors could be operated with or without synchronization. Exposure times could be the same or different for the indirect and direct portions of the detector. With the scintillator in direct contact with the direct detector, the direct detector will be exposed to the intense beam and so will age quickly. However, since that part of the detector is not needed due to the presence of the indirectly coupled sensor, it can be allowed to become non-functional.
(36) With respect to FIG. 9, Separate detectors could be operated with or without synchronization. Exposure times could be the same or different for the indirect and direct portions of the detector.
