DETAILED ACTIONS
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by NAGAOKI et al. (JP 5308903 B2, hereinafter Nagaoki, an original copy combined with preview translation is uploaded by the examiner)
Regarding Claim 1, Nagaoki teaches,
A system, comprising: an electron microscope (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, “The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope”);
at least one computing device (Nagaoki, device control unit 19,) comprising a processor and a memory; and machine-readable instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to at least (Nagaoki, Figure 3, Page 3, upper middle paragraphs, “The electron beam device control unit 19, the EDX analysis unit 2, the crystal orientation analysis unit 5, and the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate data with the substance identification unit 4” “The result is stored in the electron beam apparatus controller 19”):
capture a plurality of dark-field images; (Nagaoki, Figure 1, Page 3, upper middle paragraph, FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the main processing procedure of the crystal orientation identification system. the bright field image detector 7 or the dark field image detector 8. Observe electronic, bright-field, or dark-field images”) via the electron microscope (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, “The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope”);
calculate a crystal orientation based at least in part on data obtained from the dark-field images; and generate an orientation map based at least in part on the crystal orientation (Nagaoki, Figure 1, page 3, middle paragraph, “(3) The substance identification unit 4 collates the lattice spacing data of the crystal obtained above and the composition data obtained above, and retrieves the corresponding substance from the crystal structure database. The search result is stored in the substance identification unit 4, and the crystal structure data is input to the electron diffraction image analysis unit 3 and the crystal orientation analysis
unit 5. (4) The electron beam diffraction image analyzer 3 collates the lattice spacing data d with the crystal structure data obtained above, and obtains the low-order zone axis of the electron beam diffraction image (…) The collation result is stored in the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 and input to the crystal orientation analysis unit (diffraction image calculation unit) 5”. 5) The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image from the crystal structure data obtained above and the crystal zone axis data obtained above. The simulation diffraction image is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5.)
Regarding Claim 2, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 1,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the electron microscope is a transmission electron microscope. (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, “The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope”);
Regarding Claim 3, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 1,
Nagaoki further teaches, wherein the electron microscope is a scanning electron microscope. (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, a method for analyzing crystal orientation using an electron beam, there are methods of analyzing EBSP (Electron Back-Scattering Pattern) and ECP (Electron Channeling Pattern) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) In TEM, there are methods for analyzing the Kikuchi pattern, CBED (Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction), and electron diffraction images”. Page 3, upper middle paragraph, “(2) The scanning electron beam is stopped in the region to be measured on the sample. The electron beam diffraction image formed at this time is captured by the electron beam diffraction image detector 10”).
Regarding Claim 4, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 1,
Nagaoki further teaches, wherein the instructions that cause the computing device (control unit 19) to capture a plurality of dark-field images via the electron microscope (. (Nagaoki, Page 3, Figure 1,” the dark field image detector 8” captures dark field image. Page 11, An electron diffraction image capturing unit that captures an electron diffraction image obtained by irradiating the sample with an electron beam). further cause the computing device to:
tilt an electron beam of the electron microscope to a specified tilt angle
. (Nagaoki, Page 7, middle paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”);
rotate the electron beam about an optical axis in a plurality of incremental steps; and capture a dark-field image at individual incremental steps (Nagaoki, Page 9, Lower middle paragraph, “Load the specimen rotation angle of I s, is it the crystal orientation of the sample (S9). The read crystal orientation may be indicated by, for example, three rotation angles of the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis”. “The acquired crystal orientation data may be color-coded according to the orientation, for example, to create a crystal orientation two-dimensional distribution image of the analysis area”. Figure 1, inclination information is provided by 104 Inclination direction (OP direction)).
Regarding Claim 5, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 1,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to generate a user interface. (Nagaoki, Figure 3, Page 3, Upper middle paragraph, “The diffraction image observation result is displayed on the electron diffraction image display monitor 11”).
Regarding Claim 6, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 5,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the user interface comprises at least one of:
a tilt setting configured to set a tilt angle for an electron beam of the electron microscope; a tilt sensitivity setting configured to set a tilt sensitivity; or a step setting configured to set a number of steps corresponding to a number of dark-field images to capture. (Nagaoki, Page 7, middle paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”).
Regarding Claim 7, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 1,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to calculate a crystal orientation further cause the computing device to:
identify at least one pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 7, middle paragraph, “(7) The crystal orientation analyzer 5 stores the crystal orientation and the series of data with a unique label indicating the analysis location. Page 9, bottom paragraph, “the automatically analyzed data is
stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area.” in the plurality of dark-field images (Nagaoki, Figure 1, Page 3, upper middle paragraph, FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the main processing procedure of the crystal orientation identification system. the bright field image detector 7 or the dark field image detector 8. Observe electronic, bright-field, or dark-field images”) ;
assign a vector to the at least onepixel location for individual dark-field images of the plurality of dark-field images (Nagaoki, Page 8, top paragraph, The low-order zone axis A [uvw] can be calculated using, for example, the plane indices (h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) of the two diffracted waves and Equation 1.
PNG
media_image1.png
176
622
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Here, (a * b * c *) is a basic vector in the inverse space”,( see equation 1 from original copy). Each coordinate axis represents a vector unit. Page 8, top paragraph, the obtained zone axis A [uvw] is [uvw] = [k1 * l2-l1 * k2 l1 * h2-h1 * l2
h1 * k2-k1 * h2] It becomes. Here, * indicates a product. It is preferable to previously create and store a crystal structure data such as a JCPDS card such as a lattice constant, a space group, a zone axis, and an atomic position.);
sum the vectors corresponding to the at least one pixel location across the plurality of dark-field images to yield a resultant vector, (Nagaoki, Page 3, 4) “The electron beam diffraction image analyzer 3 collates the lattice spacing data d with the crystal structure data obtained above, and obtains the low-order zone axis of the electron beam diffraction image. The zone axis refers to a group of planes parallel to a certain direction in a crystal as a zone and refers to that direction. Here, the lower-order (smaller u, v, w) of the zone axis [uvw] is called the lower order zone axis.”See figure 4, steps S1-Page 8, middle paragraph, The intensity center of gravity of the electron beam diffraction image I m and P m. There are various methods for obtaining P m. For example, if the coordinates of the pixel x are represented by (i, j) and the pixel intensity of the pixel x is w ij , P (p, q) is calculated using Equation 2. (see below equation 2, from original copy)
PNG
media_image2.png
106
245
media_image2.png
Greyscale
the resultant vector having a magnitude and a direction; and determine a crystallographic orientation at the at least one-pixel location based at least in part on the direction of the resultant vector. (Nagaoki, figure 4, stepS8-S9, Page 9, lower bottom paragraph, “The read crystal orientation may be indicated by, for example, three rotation angles of the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis. For example, the rotation of the two axes of the x-axis, z-axis, and x-axis is similar to the Euler angle. It may be indicated by a corner”. Page 3, Figure 4, bottom paragraph, (7) The crystal orientation analyzer 5 stores the crystal orientation and the series of data with a unique label indicating the analysis location. FIG. 4 is a more detailed flowchart for explaining the procedure of the crystal orientation analysis system”).
Regarding Claim 8, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 7,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to assign a vector to the pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 8, top paragraph, The low-order zone axis A [uvw] can be calculated using, for example, the plane indices (h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) of the two diffracted waves and Equation 1. Here, (a * b * c *) is a basic vector in the inverse space”,( see equation 1 from original copy). Each coordinate axis represents a vector unit)
further cause the computing device to:
determine a magnitude of the vector based at least in part on a brightness of a pixel corresponding to the at least one pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 3, lower paragraph, “The electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 calculates a pixel intensity barycentric position for the transmitted wave spot position and the entire diffraction image from the electron beam diffraction image. The calculation result is stored in the electron diffraction image analyzer 3 and input to the crystal orientation analyzer 5”); and
determine a direction of the vector based at least in part on a precession angle of the respective dark-field image (Nagaoki, Page 3, “lower bottom paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”).
Regarding Claim 9, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 7,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to generate an orientation map further cause the computing device to assign a color to the pixel location, the color based at least in part upon the crystallographic orientation (Nagaoki, Page 9, Bottom paragraph, “The analysis area is arbitrarily designated from the bright field image or dark field image observed in (1) of FIG. At each point in the analysis area, the electron beam diffraction image is automatically analyzed by the method shown in the first embodiment. The automatically analyzed data is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area. The acquired crystal orientation data may be color-coded according to the orientation, for example, to create a crystal orientation two dimensional distribution image of the analysis area”).
Regarding Claim 10, Nagaoki teaches
A system, comprising:
at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory (Nagaoki, device control unit 19,) and machine-readable instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device (Nagaoki, Figure 3, Page 3, upper middle paragraphs, “The electron beam device control unit 19, the EDX analysis unit 2, the crystal orientation analysis unit 5, and the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate data with the substance identification unit 4” “The result is stored in the electron beam apparatus controller 19”) to at least:
identify a pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 7, middle paragraph, “(7) The crystal orientation analyzer 5 stores the crystal orientation and the series of data with a unique label indicating the analysis location. Page 9, bottom paragraph, “the automatically analyzed data is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area”)in a plurality of dark-field images (Nagaoki, Figure 1, Page 3, upper middle paragraph, FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the main processing procedure of the crystal orientation identification system. the bright field image detector 7 or the dark field image detector 8. Observe electronic, bright-field, or dark-field images”);
assign a vector to the at least onepixel location for individual dark-field images of the plurality of dark-field images (Nagaoki, Page 8, top paragraph, The low-order zone axis A [uvw] can be calculated using, for example, the plane indices (h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) of the two diffracted waves and Equation 1.
PNG
media_image1.png
176
622
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Here, (a * b * c *) is a basic vector in the inverse space”,( see equation 1 from original copy). Each coordinate axis represents a vector unit. Page 8, top paragraph, the obtained zone axis A [uvw] is [uvw] = [k1 * l2-l1 * k2 l1 * h2-h1 * l2
h1 * k2-k1 * h2] It becomes. Here, * indicates a product. It is preferable to previously create and store a crystal structure data such as a JCPDS card such as a lattice constant, a space group, a zone axis, and an atomic position.);
sum the vectors corresponding to the at least one pixel location across the plurality of dark-field images to yield a resultant vector, (Nagaoki, Page 3, 4) “The electron beam diffraction image analyzer 3 collates the lattice spacing data d with the crystal structure data obtained above, and obtains the low-order zone axis of the electron beam diffraction image. The zone axis refers to a group of planes parallel to a certain direction in a crystal as a zone and refers to that direction. Here, the lower-order (smaller u, v, w) of the zone axis [uvw] is called the lower order zone axis.”See figure 4, steps S1-Page 8, middle paragraph, The intensity center of gravity of the electron beam diffraction image I m and P m. There are various methods for obtaining P m. For example, if the coordinates of the pixel x are represented by (i, j) and the pixel intensity of the pixel x is w ij , P (p, q) is calculated using Equation 2. (see below equation 2, from original copy)
PNG
media_image2.png
106
245
media_image2.png
Greyscale
the resultant vector having a magnitude and a direction; and determine a crystallographic orientation at the at least one-pixel location based at least in part on the direction of the resultant vector. (Nagaoki, figure 4, stepS8-S9, Page 9, lower bottom paragraph, “The read crystal orientation may be indicated by, for example, three rotation angles of the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis. For example, the rotation of the two axes of the x-axis, z-axis, and x-axis is similar to the Euler angle. It may be indicated by a corner”. Page 3, Figure 4, bottom paragraph, (7) The crystal orientation analyzer 5 stores the crystal orientation and the series of data with a unique label indicating the analysis location. FIG. 4 is a more detailed flowchart for explaining the procedure of the crystal orientation analysis system”).
Regarding Claim 11, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 10,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to assign a vector to the pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 8, top paragraph, The low-order zone axis A [uvw] can be calculated using, for example, the plane indices (h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) of the two diffracted waves and Equation 1. Here, (a * b * c *) is a basic vector in the inverse space”( see equation 1 from original copy). Each coordinate axis represents a vector unit)
further cause the computing device to: determine a magnitude of the vector based at least in part on a brightness of a pixel corresponding to the at least one pixel location (Nagaoki, Page 3, lower paragraph, “The electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 calculates a pixel intensity barycentric position for the transmitted wave spot position and the entire diffraction image from the electron beam diffraction image. The calculation result is stored in the electron diffraction image analyzer 3 and input to the crystal orientation analyzer 5”); and
Regarding Claim 12, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 10,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to assign a vector to the pixel location further cause the computing device to determine a direction of the vector based at least in part on a precession angle of the respective dark-field image (Nagaoki, Page 3, “lower bottom paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”).
Regarding Claim 13, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 10,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to generate an orientation map (Nagaoki, Page 9, bottom paragraph, The analysis area is arbitrarily designated from the bright field image or dark field image observed in (1) of FIG. At each point in the analysis area, the electron beam diffraction image is automatically analyzed by the method shown in the first embodiment. The automatically analyzed data is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area”) based at least in part on the crystallographic orientation (Nagaoki, Page 3, upper paragraph, FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the main processing procedure of the crystal orientation identification system”).
Regarding Claim 14, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 13,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the instructions that cause the computing device to generate an orientation map further cause the computing device to assign a color to the pixel location, the color based at least in part upon the crystallographic orientation. (Nagaoki, Page 9, Bottom paragraph, “The analysis area is arbitrarily designated from the bright field image or dark field image observed in (1) of FIG. At each point in the analysis area, the electron beam diffraction image is automatically analyzed by the method shown in the first embodiment. The automatically analyzed data is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area. The acquired crystal orientation data may be color-coded according to the orientation, for example, to create a crystal orientation two dimensional distribution image of the analysis area”).
Regarding Claim 15, Nagaoki teaches the system of claim 10,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein the electron microscope is a transmission electron microscope. (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, “The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope”);
Regarding Claim 16, Nagaoki teaches,
A method, comprising:
identifying at least one bright spot from a dark-field image, the at least one bright spot corresponding to a crystal area (Nagaoki, Page 9, bottom paragraph, “The analysis
area is arbitrarily designated from the bright field image or dark field image observed in (1) of FIG. At each point in the analysis area, the electron beam diffraction image is automatically analyzed by the method shown in the first embodiment. The automatically analyzed data is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5 using a unique label indicating the analysis location, for example, the pixel coordinates of the analysis area”).;
determining a vector for the at least one bright spot Nagaoki, Page 8, top paragraph, The low-order zone axis A [uvw] can be calculated using, for example, the plane indices (h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) of the two diffracted waves and Equation 1.
PNG
media_image1.png
176
622
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Here, (a * b * c *) is a basic vector in the inverse space”,( see equation 1 from original copy). Each coordinate axis represents a vector unit. Page 8, top paragraph, the obtained zone axis A [uvw] is [uvw] = [k1 * l2-l1 * k2 l1 * h2-h1 * l2
h1 * k2-k1 * h2] It becomes. Here, * indicates a product. It is preferable to previously create and store a crystal structure data such as a JCPDS card such as a lattice constant, a space group, a zone axis, and an atomic position.);
summing the vectors corresponding to the at least one bright spot across a plurality of dark-field images to yield a resultant vector (Nagaoki, Page 3, 4) “The electron beam diffraction image analyzer 3 collates the lattice spacing data d with the crystal structure data obtained above, and obtains the low-order zone axis of the electron beam diffraction image. The zone axis refers to a group of planes parallel to a certain direction in a crystal as a zone and refers to that direction. Here, the lower-order (smaller u, v, w) of the zone axis [uvw] is called the lower order zone axis.”See figure 4, steps S1-Page 8, middle paragraph, The intensity center of gravity of the electron beam diffraction image I m and P m. There are various methods for obtaining P m. For example, if the coordinates of the pixel x are represented by (i, j) and the pixel intensity of the pixel x is w ij , P (p, q) is calculated using Equation 2. (see below equation 2, from original copy)
PNG
media_image2.png
106
245
media_image2.png
Greyscale
; and
determining an orientation of the crystal area based at least in part on a direction of the resultant vector. (Nagaoki, figure 4, stepS8-S9, Page 9, lower bottom paragraph, “The read crystal orientation may be indicated by, for example, three rotation angles of the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis. For example, the rotation of the two axes of the x-axis, z-axis, and x-axis is similar to the Euler angle. It may be indicated by a corner”. Page 3, Figure 4, bottom paragraph, (7) The crystal orientation analyzer 5 stores the crystal orientation and the series of data with a unique label indicating the analysis location. FIG. 4 is a more detailed flowchart for explaining the procedure of the crystal orientation analysis system”).
Regarding Claim 17, Nagaoki teaches the method of claim 16,
Nagaoki further teaches comprising generating an orientation map based at least in part on the orientation of the crystal area. (Nagaoki, Figure 1, page 3, middle paragraph 4, “The electron beam diffraction image analyzer 3 collates the lattice spacing data d with the crystal structure data obtained above, and obtains the low-order zone axis of the electron beam diffraction image (…) The collation result is stored in the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 and input to the crystal orientation analysis unit (diffraction image calculation unit) 5”. 5) The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image from the crystal structure data obtained above and the crystal zone axis data obtained above. The simulation diffraction image is stored in the crystal orientation analysis unit 5).
Regarding Claim 18, Nagaoki teaches the method of claim 16,
Nagaoki further teaches wherein determining a vector for the at least one bright spot further comprises: determining a magnitude of the vector based at least in part on a brightness of the bright spot (Nagaoki, Page 3, lower paragraph, “The electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 calculates a pixel intensity barycentric position for the transmitted wave spot position and the entire diffraction image from the electron beam diffraction image. The calculation result is stored in the electron diffraction image analyzer 3 and input to the crystal orientation analyzer 5”); and
determining a direction of the vector based at least in part on a precession angle of the dark-field image (Nagaoki, Page 3, “lower bottom paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”).
Regarding Claim 19, Nagaoki teaches the method of claim 16,
Nagaoki further teaches further comprising capturing the plurality of dark-field images with an electron microscope. (Nagaoki, Figure 3, page 2, top paragraph, “The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope”);
Regarding Claim 20, Nagaoki teaches the method of claim 19,
Nagaoki further teaches, wherein capturing the plurality of dark-field images further comprises: tilting an electron beam to a specified tilt angle (Nagaoki, Page 7, middle paragraph, the electron beam diffraction image analysis unit 3 obtains the tilt direction 104 from the pixel intensity gravity center position 102 and the transmitted wave spot position 100 of the electron beam diffraction image. The crystal orientation analysis unit 5 draws a simulation diffraction image in which the sample is tilted in the tilt direction 104. If the tilted simulation diffraction image is equal to the electron beam diffraction image, the tilt angle of the sample, that is, the crystal orientation is read from the simulation diffraction image. The obtained crystal orientation is stored in the crystal orientation analyzer 5”);
rotate the electron beam about an optical axis in a plurality of incremental steps; and capture a dark-field image at individual incremental steps (Nagaoki, Page 9, Lower middle paragraph, “Load the specimen rotation angle of I s, is it the crystal orientation of the sample (S9). The read crystal orientation may be indicated by, for example, three rotation angles of the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis”. “The acquired crystal orientation data may be color-coded according to the orientation, for example, to create a crystal orientation two-dimensional distribution image of the analysis area”. Figure 1, inclination information is provided by 104 Inclination direction (OP direction)).
Conclusion
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
MORI et al. (US 2020/0066481 A1) describes “There is provided a tilting parameter calculating device for use in a charged particle beam device for making a charged particle beam irradiated to a surface of a sample mounted on
a sample stage, the tilting parameters calculating device being configured to calculate tilting parameters, the tilting parameters being input parameters to control a tilting direction and a tilting value of the sample and/or the charged
particle beam, the input parameters being necessary to change an incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to the sample, the tilting parameters calculating device including a tilting parameters calculating unit for
calculating the tilting parameters based on information that indicates the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to a crystal lying at a selected position on the surface in a state where the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to the sample is in a predetermined
incident direction, the information being designated on a crystal orientation figure, which is a diagram illustrating the incident direction of the charged particle beam with respect to a crystal coordinate system of the crystal” (abstract).
Takeshi OWAKI (US 2023/0010917 A1) The invention provides “According to one embodiment, there is provided an analysis method by a scanning transmission electron microscope including a dark field detector that detects dark field images by irradiating a sample with electron beams and detecting electron beams that are transmitted through or scattered from the sample, and an electron beam detector that detects electron diffraction images at radiation points of the electron beams among the electron beams that are transmitted through the sample or scattered from detecting the electron beams transmitted through a hollow portion of the dark field detector. The analysis method includes scanning a plurality of the radiation points set in an attention area by sequentially radiating electron beams at preset incidence angles, and performing detection of dark field images of the attention area and detection of NBD images at each of the plurality of radiation points at the same time” (abstract).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DILARA SULTANA whose telephone number is (571)272-3861. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 9 AM-5:30 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s
supervisor, EMAN ALKAFAWI can be reached on (571) 272-4448. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DILARA SULTANA/Examiner, Art Unit 2858
06/23/2026
/EMAN A ALKAFAWI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858 6/29/2026
Prosecution Insights