Schoolcraft MET248 Winter 2019 1 of 3

Standard Operation Procedure of ZEISS EVO Scanning Electron Microscope

Login
• Double click SmartSEM icon on the desktop to start the software

• Enter your Username (first initial, last name) and Password (7 digit student ID), click Ok.

Select Stage Navigation Panel

• Stage>Navigation

• Drag the Stage Navigation panel to the SEM 2 Monitor

• Click>>to expend the panel

• Drag Zoom view to enlarge the carousel schematic

Select SEM Status Panel

• View>SEM Status

• Drag the SEM Status panel to the SEM 2 Monitor

Load or Exchange Sample (See the SOP for sample changing for details)

• SEM Control Panel>Gun Tab

• Click the “Beam Stage” drop down box and select “Beam Off”

• On the vacuum Tab of the SEM Control choose “Vent”.

• Open Dry Nitrogen Valve and wait for chamber to be vented.

• Close Dry Nitrogen Valve once chamber is vented.

• Load samples.

• On the vacuum Tab of the SEM control choose “Pump”.

• The Vacuum Tab of the SEM Control will display:

• “Vac Status = Ready”

• “EHT Vac ready = “Yes”

Positioning the Sample

• Turn on camera using keyboard camera button

• Move the sample into position using the Z stage navigation joystick

• Center the sample under the objective lens using either the XY stage navigation knob or
alternatively double clicking the sample number on the carousel thematic

Set HV and I-Probe

• On the SEM Control Panel>Gun tab:

• Set EHT Target: 15.0 kV or other preferred high voltage

• Set I-Probe: 201pA or other preferred probe current

Select the Secondary Electron Detector

• On the SEM Control Panel>Detectors tab:

• Click the “Sigal A” drop down box and choose “SE1” to enable the Secondary Electron
Detector

• Set Collector Bias to +300V or higher

Switch on the Beam

• Turn off the camera using the keyboard camera button

• SEM Control Panel>Gun Tab

• Click the “Beam State” drop down box and select “Beam On”

• The filament run-up progress is indicated in the status bar

• Set Magnification to lower value using knob on Keyboard Console (tip: click the “MagWD”
button in the top tool bar to show the Mag and WD values in the status bar)

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Setup Image Scanning

• SEM Control Panel>Scanning Tab:

• Set Store Resolution to 1024x768

• Set Scan Speed to 3 or 4

• Set Noise Reduction to Frame Avg

• Set Frames N=1

• Set Freeze to “On Command”

Adjust Brightness and Contrast to and Focus

• Use the brightness and Contrast knobs on the Keyboard Console

• Click the “Levels” button in the tool bar to show the Brightness and Contrast values in the
status bar.

• Set Brightness to 50% to start

• Use Contrast as “gain” control to adjust signal for the best image.

• Adjust focus using Focus knob on Keyboard Console to obtain coarse focus.

Obtaining Best Image

• Scan sample to determine the area of interest

• Adjust magnification to desired level

• Adjust brightness and contrast

• Adjust coarse focus

• Adjust fine focus

• Adjust stigmatism

• Repeat the above steps as necessary to achieve best image

• Change WD, HV or I-Probe if necessary and repeat above steps to improve resolution

To Record Final Image

—Method 1
• Scanning tab

• Set Scan Speed to 6 or greater

• Set Freeze to End Frame

• Set Noise Reduction to Line Int

• Wait for Red Dot in lower right corner of image to appear indicating a Frozen Image

—Method 2

• Click Photo icon

• Default setting with scan speed 8, Line Int., and N=4 will be used for imaging

• Speed and N can be manually changed and the scanning will restart

• Wait for Red Dot in lower right corner of image to appear indicating a Frozen Image

—Method 3

• From Photo drop down menu, select Photo Fast

• Default setting with scan speed 6, Line Int., and N=4 will be used for imaging

• Speed and N can be manually changed and the scanning will restart

• Wait for Red Dot in lower right corner of image to appear indicating a Frozen Image

—Method 4
• From Photo drop down menu, select Frame Average

• Default setting with scan speed 4, Frame Int., and N=30 will be used for imaging

• Speed and N can be manually changed and the scanning will restart

• Wait for Red Dot in lower right corner of image to appear indicating a Frozen Image

Save the Image

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• File>Save Image

• Enter filename parameters

• Click”Save Image’ button

• Images are stored in the User’s “Image’ folder on the SEM PC.

Back to Live Image

• Change Noise Reduction to Frame Avg to go back to live image

To Finish
• Turn “Beam Off”

• Turn on camera

• Move the Z-Axis down

• Vent chamber

• Remove sample

• Pump chamber

• Logout SmartSEM software