Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2004 · 30 citations · 0 references
EngineeringElectrical EngineeringNuclear EngineeringNuclear InstrumentationRadiation DetectionSensorsDetector TechnologyElectron MicroscopyRadiation Detector ArraysRadiation DetectorsSemiconductor DetectorsTransmission Electron MicroscopyCamerasDetector Spatial ResolutionDirect DetectionFull Width At Half MaximumPixel DetectorsRadiation-tolerant ElectronicsRadiation-tolerant Semiconductor DevicesSignal-to-noise Ratio
There is an urgent need to replace film and CCD cameras as recording instruments for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Film is too cumbersome to process and CCD cameras have low resolution, marginal to poor signal-to-noise ratio for single electron detection and high spatial distortion. To find a replacement device, we have tested a high sensitivity active pixel sensor (APS) array currently being developed for nuclear physics. The tests were done at 120 keV in a JEOL 1200 electron microscope. At this energy, each electron produced on average a signal-tonoise ratio about 20/1. The spatial resolution was also excellent with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) about 20 microns. Since it is very radiation tolerant and has almost no spatial distortion, the above tests showed that a high sensitivity CMOS APS array holds great promise as a direct detection device for electron microscopy.