A comparison of on‐line digital recording with conventional photographic recording for scanning electron microscopy

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has previously utilized a video monitor plus camera as the image recording system. However, this conventional method is inefficient in relation to information present in the original electric signal. Therefore, we propose, for general use, an on‐line recording system consisting of an A‐D converter, image memory, and computer. In addition, we found that the effect of vibration in the SEM image could be reduced by application of the digital recording system. In the present study, interpolation and signal averaging programs were utilized for confirming the performance level of the on‐line recording system. These programs were found to be very effective for SEM.