Automated Particle Analysis

Carl Zeiss introduced the Smart Particle Investigator (SmartPI), a software package for use with Zeiss Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) that enables the automatic detection, investigation and characterisation of particles of interest.

SmartPI integrates all aspects of the SEM control, Image Processing and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis for particle detection and characterisation within a single application. A high degree of automation for repetitive sample analysis provides non-subjective results with minimal user involvement and enables continuous unattended operation of the instrument. Automated calibration and diagnostic procedures ensure results accuracy and system stability and an advanced stop-criteria allows early termination of the analysis if a predefined threshold is reached, thereby significantly reducing the analysis time.