AN INTEGRATED COMPUTER-SYSTEM FOR FUDAN NUCLEAR MICROPROBE

With the help of modern personal computer (PC) and object oriented pro gramming (OOP) technology, we have recently developed a compact, integ rated, user-friendly computer system for Fudan nuclear microprobe, whi ch was originally modeled after the SUNY/Albany system. The system sof tware has been thoroughly rewritten so as to take advantage of today's high-performance PC and facilitate easy upgrading and expansion in th e case of future development of both hardware and software. Most funct ions of this system such as sample searching, scanning control, data a cquisition, image processing and displaying, are based on a single 803 86 IBM style PC with a 1-MB DRAM TVGA high-resolution monitor. Data fr om up to 4 ADCs, 4 sensors and a CCD camera can be acquired simultaneo usly. Two stepper motors are employed to move the target; a CCD camera system is also included to locate the area of interest on the sample; the secondary electron image could act as a reference to fine adjustm ent. Rectangular raster scanning or irregular scanning is facilitated with beam motion triggered either by a timer or by pulses from a curre nt integrator. A variety of built-in image displaying, processing and printing methods have also been implemented in order to make the maps easier to interpret for the eyes. All of these functions are administr ated by an integrated, completely menu-driven software package-MBSYS.