VIRTUAL SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE: USING A $500,0000 MICROSCOPE FOR FREE

 

Glenn Fried

Director, Imaging Technology Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC

11/18/2003

3rd Floor Tower, 3269 Beckman

Currently the Imaging Technology Group's Bugscope project is reaching an average of one K-12 classroom each week during the school year. In order to allow more students to have the opportunity to experience operating a scanning electron microscope the ITG has developed a Virtual Scanning Electron Microscope (VSEM) to simulate the experience of operating a ESEM without requiring time on the microscope or confining teachers and students to a strike schedule. Accurately simulating the operation of the ESEM requires a large data set allowing the user to move around the sample and change magnification and focus. The data is then cut into a series of blocks allowing the VSEM software to pull up image blocks corresponding to operator specified locations magnification and focal planes. The user interface was modeled after the ESEM to provide a realistic experience. To give students an idea of how the ESEM works and how samples are prepared a selection of training videos and help pages are also provided.