Thermo Scientific Inspect 3D Software provides a user-friendly solution for alignment of tomographic image series (obtained with transmission electron microscopy or scanning transmission electron microscopy, TEM or STEM) along with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) maps, producing a 3D reconstruction of the data. Inspect 3D Software also offers basic visualization functionality. All Thermo Scientific TEM, STEM and EDS tomography software are fully compatible with Inspects 3D Software.

Inspect 3D Software begins with a coarse X-Y alignment based on image cross-correlation. Alignment can be further refined with automated bead tracking or patch tracking procedures. Bead tracking traces multiple round particles on the specimen throughout the tilt series, correcting rotation and magnification changes for each image. Patch tracking traces multiple areas of the image throughout the tilt series and then combines the results.

Inspect 3D Software offers two classical algorithms for 3D volume reconstruction: weighted back projection (WBP) and simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique (SIRT). Additionally, Inspect 3D Software offers easy EDS-tomography reconstruction with simultaneous processing of STEM and EDS files, called HAADF-EDS bimodal tomography (HEBT), leading to enhanced elemental reconstruction.

Iterative reconstruction techniques offered with Inspect 3D Software include;

• Conjugate gradient least squares (CGLS)
• Expectation maximization (EM), in which elongation artifacts are significantly reduced when compared to SIRT reconstruction
• Simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART)

The resulting reconstructed volumes can be directly imported into Thermo Scientific Avizo and Amira Software for further visualization and analysis.

Key Features

• Cross-correlation requires no markers as the process is enhanced by the use of a large variety of filters and image processing tools.
• Feature tracking can utilize added artificial features like gold markers, or recognizable intrinsic specimen features, as a basis for image alignment.
• Bead cloaking removes gold beads from the image data after they have been used for alignment, so they do not show in the reconstruction. 
• The algebraic reconstruction technique iteratively compares projections of the reconstruction to the original projections and corrects the reconstruction to minimize differences.
• The simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique preserves full spatial information and can enhance the signal to noise ratio of the reconstruction. 

Applications

Techniques