Calibration of Hitachi 2460N with PCI and Autobeam

DRAFT: Several points need to be verified.

Calibrations were performed using a 3.05-mm TEM grid on ____ and ____. These were
necessitated by some pores in concrete appearing markedly elongated and by the visible screen
areas differing from the recorded images.
Calibration involved tweaking several pots at the rear of the Hitachi console until round images
appeared round and magnified to the right size. I recall that the Y-size was adjusted first and
then the X-size. Some iteration was required to get the same appearance at both 0 and 90
degrees rotation.
Polaroid camera
I think there was a pot to adjust the aspect ratio of the camera images. The magnification of the
camera was adjusted my moving the camera back vertically and locking it into place.
Brightness adjustment
PCI image capture
Remove top of computer case for access to PCI interface card.
Scan areas are matched on the PCI interface card. Channels 1 and 2 represent the X and Y scan
signals, respectively. They should be set to encompass just slightly more than the full area
shown on the SEM monitors. The Acquire Calibrate menu is used to adjust threshold values to
match the screen area and Polaroid prints. The images should be checked for circularity.
Magnification calibration is done through the ____ menu. It should be about ___ um per pixel at
___x magnification. This assumes a screen and Polaroid image width of 120 mm.
Gray scale calibration is done with the PCI interface card. Channel 3 is the display signal from
the SEM. Channel 4 is not connected. Setup a TEM grid on a carbon stub and Tetra imaging (to
minimize shading. Adjust contrast and brightness levels until carbon and copper levels are just
within the minimum and maximum ranges shown on the waveform display. Set PCI program for
Small or medium image size and set SEM for moderate scan rate (one press of third button).
Acquire and image and check the histogram display (Process, Histogram). Adjust Channel 3 gain
and offset pots accordingly. Acquire a fresh image and check its grayscale histogram. Continue
adjustments and collection until the two peaks of the histogram are near the ends of the scale.
(CCW or CW adjustment of the offset trim pot raises the digitized brightness shifting the
histogram to the right. CCW or CW adjustment of the gain trim pot increases contrast in the
digitized image spreading the peaks of the histogram. There is some interaction of the gain
setting so that a follow-up tweak of the offset pot will probably be necessary.
Oxford Autobeam
Calibration is performed with the Image and FEG Setup program in the ISIS Setup program
group. The password thames is required to run the program. It is entered even though the
cursor does not appear in the password box. The program may report an error with SPIN.VBX if
Microsoft Imager is running when the program is started..
Image and FEG setup have steps that will walk a user through an entire calibration process.
However, if only minor adjustments are being made to an existing system, just the relevant
portions of the calibration need to be executed.

Scan area calibration is done with the x and y selection buttons. An appropriate sample such as a
TEM grid should be loaded. A calibrated image of the sample from another source should be
available in printed form for comparison.
X-calibration
Select the x-scan button and start image acquisition. Adjust offset to match the left side of the
live preview image to the same position as the calibrated image. Adjust gain to match the
horizontal view.
Y-calibration
Select the y-scan button and start image acquisition. Adjust offset to match the top of the live
preview image to the same position as the calibrated image. Adjust gain to match the vertical
view.
Halt acquisition and save settings to disk. A floppy will be required for this operation. Exit the
image setup program, start AutoBeam, and collect a larger image (512 or larger) to check the
calibration.
Gray calibration
This uses the same SEM setup as the PCI brightness calibration, i.e., TEM grid on carbon, Tetra
detector, waveform just inside the minimum and maximum range.
Select the Image-1 button and start image acquisition. Adjust the offset so that a small number of
the dark pixels are colored blue as being in the darkest range. Adjust the gain so that a small
number of the light pixels appear reddish pink as being in the lightest range.
Halt acquisition and save settings to disk. A floppy will be required for this operation. Exit the
image setup program, start AutoBeam, and collect a larger image (512 or larger) to check the
calibration. Click the histogram area measurement button to display a histogram of gray scales.
Proper calibration should result in two peaks in the histogram, one near each end of the gray
scale. Neither peak should be clipped by the end of the gray scale.
Calibrations were performed on.
December 15, 1999
The spatial calibrations of ____ were still correct. A 3.05-mm TEM grid was measured as
2.96x2.98 mm on Polaroid film. It was measured as 2.97/3.00 mm by PCI, and it was measured
as 2.97x3.01 mm by AutoBeam. This represents less than a 2% error at 30x magnification.
The grayscale calibration was in error and required adjusting both PCI and AutoBeam systems to
match. Polaroid Type 53 film requires setting the f-stop almost one stop larger than indicated to
produce a decent gray scale image.
December 16, 1999
The AutoBeam setup was de-calibrated to match the calibration in effect during April 1999 when
images were collected for the DOTs 92-97 project comparison. At first, only the Y calibration
appeared to need changing. It was matched to the first images collected April __. The Y view
matched at 100%, but the X-view was 104% of what was viewed earlier. (This was later
corrected and used for collection of the first batch of maps.)

Comparison of that with later images showed the following errors:

Date

Vertical span

Horizontal span

(% of original)

(% of original)

4-6-99

100

104

4-20-99

92

96

4-21-99

87

92

5-3-99

88

91

It appears that the same calibration was in effect on 4-21 and 5-3. There appears to have two
changes in calibration. One sometime after the start and before 4-20, and one between the runs of
4-20 and 4-21. Since most SEMs do not guarantee accuracy closer than 5%, so the changes
between 4-20 and 4-21 may be negligible and might be due to a steady drift. This yet needs to be
confirmed.
Parameter

9-99

4-99 match

X-gain

1322

1280

X-offset

-1359

-1388

Y gain

1669

1910

Y-offset

-1531

-1669

SE gain

256

231

SE offset

-719

-478