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 TOOLS & INSTRUMENTS

TESCAN MIRA3 for automated electron microscopy
    
  tescan mira3The TESCAN MIRA3’s optics column with 4 x-ray detectors.
  
      A TESCAN MIRA3 Schottky field-emission scanning electron microscope with 4 30 mm2 silicon x-ray drift detectors which has been automated for particle and generic imaging and x-ray acquisition tasks.  The microscope was optimized for high x-ray throughput (200 cps at 1 nA on Cu at 20 keV), low noise imaging and custom sizing algorithms to facilitate state-of-the-art particle analysis.  The instrument is scriptable in Python using the SEMantics framework, an instrument control extension to NIST DTSA-II.  On optimal samples, throughputs of 10,000 particles per hour are achievable with elemental sensitivity down to approximately 1 % for most of the periodic table.

The microscope has been used for studying environmental particles, forensics, particle size distribution characterization, standard development, large area x-ray spectrum imaging and quantitative compositional analysis.  It was the first commercial SEM with 4 SDD x-ray detectors and the first instrument to acquire a spectrum image consisting of over 1 billion point spectra.

Related Publications

Ritchie, N. and Filip, V. (2011), 'SEMantics for High Speed Automated Particle Analysis by SEM/EDX', *Microscopy and Microanalysis* **17**(S2), 896-897.

Ritchie, N. W. M. (2015), 'Diluvian Clustering: A Fast, Effective Algorithm for Clustering Compositional and Other Data', *Microscopy and Microanalysis* **21**(5), 1173-1183.

Ritchie, N. W. M., Wight, S., Ortiz-Montalvo, D. and Lindstrom, A. P. (2023), 'Registering Particle Data Sets Using a Rotation and Translation Invariant Nearest-Neighbor Algorithm', *Microscopy and Microanalysis* **29**(2), 512-519.

Specifications/Capabilities
      
                          Automated particle analysis, automated spectrum acquisition, automated image acquisition, automated compositional analysis.
                  Analytical chemistry, Trace evidence, Materials characterization, Composition and structure and Reference materials
  
            Organizations
      
      NIST HeadquartersLaboratory ProgramsMaterial Measurement LaboratoryMaterials Measurement Science DivisionMicroscopy and Microanalysis Research Group
              Details
          Campus
                    Gaithersburg
              Contact
      
        

Nicholas Ritchie
    
      
  nicholas.ritchie@nist.gov
  (301) 975-3929

    
    Created March 20, 2018, Updated May 3, 2023
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