EDAX's Digital Imaging and X-ray mapping includes an advanced set of hardware and software tools which can extend the analytical capabilites of your electron microscope.

EDAX offers the highest resolution available (up to 8096x6400) and includes additional features to help you make the transition from Polaroid film to digital microscopy. Collect digital images for reports or further processing with EDAX or third party software, with confidence you have the best images possible.

In the example below, you can see the effects of signal integration, just one of the advanced processing capabilities built into EDAX imaging systems. The series shows a three phase material collected at 512x400 pixel resolution. The two darker phases are composed of the same elements in slightly different proportions. Increasing the amount of signal integration enhances the image quality, as seen in the respective histograms, with minimal time and effort. More important, it allows the user to use the histogram information to clearly distinguish between the two similar phases.

Figure 1. This image and the resulting histogram show the results of collecting a single integration across the image. Total collection time was just a few seconds. Although image quality is acceptable, it could benefit from further processing prior to doing any image analysis as in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Notice the histogram does not have enough detail to adequately resolve the two similar phases. There is also some "graininess" in the phases.

Figure 3. We can see immediate improvements in the image and the histogram by simply increasing signal integration at each pixel from one to 25. With the speed of EDAX's electronics and digital signal processors (DSPs) there is virtually no difference in the time to collect this image from the one with no additional integration.

Figure 4. This continues a series of steps, showing the benefits of 50 integrations. There are now three clearly resolved peaks, but still room for improvement.

Figure 5. This continues a series of steps, showing the results of 100 integrations. The time to collect this image was only about six seconds.

Figure 6. This continues a series of steps, showing the benefits of 200 integrations. We can clearly distinguish between all three phases in the histogram. We are also beginning to see a level of diminishing return with increased integration. Collection time is still less than ten seconds.

Figure 7. This concludes the series with 500 integrations. As mentioned above, we reach a point where increased integration and collection will not noticeably improve the quality - we have the optimum image available from the microscope.

Figure 8. Using the enhanced image quality, further processing is easier and more concise.