‘Tempo’ winner in the 2024 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards
Trigger-Event Modulated Probability Observation (Tempo) has been recognised in the Microscopy Today 2024 Innovation Awards. Developed by IDES Inc. and turboTEM Ltd. Tempo improves the amount of information captured for a given electron dose, increasing the information efficiency in STEM experiments.
The award was presented to Bryan Reed, accepting on behalf of IDES inc., and Lewys Jones, accepting on behalf of turboTEM Ltd.
Tempo is available through JEOL and IDES inc. and can be equipped on new TEMs or retrofitted to existing equipment. More information here.
Below is the nomination text that will be published in Microscopy Today:
Trigger-Event Modulated Probability Observation (Tempo)
IDES Inc. and turboTEM Ltd.
Developers: Bryan W. Reed, Lewys Jones, Jonathan Peters, and Daniel Masiel
Trigger-event modulated probability observation (Tempo) is a new paradigm in low-dose STEM imaging. Beam sensitive specimens are a challenge in materials science and biology. There are many materials that are difficult to image at desired spatial resolutions. Drift and specimen degradation are a constant problem. Tempo is a tool for addressing these issues without compromising data quality. Tempo can be equipped to new TEM columns or retrofitted to existing systems.
Tempo measures the time required to collect a specified number of electrons rather than detecting electrons over a fixed time. This allows users to minimize the electron dose required to reach a desired signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) while measuring the scattering probability of the specimen. In conventional STEM, each pixel receives the same electron fluence, forcing a compromise between having enough signal to see the low-intensity regions and needlessly depositing excess energy into high-scattering-rate pixels. Tempo reallocates the dose from the high-scattering regions to the low-scattering regions, equalizing the SNR in all pixels and avoiding diminishing returns from continued probing of pixels that have been adequately sampled. For sample surveying, the beam blanking threshold can be set to trigger to just one electron count while still generating a high bit depth image because pixel intensity is defined by the time it takes for an electron count to be detected. The beam is then blanked for the remainder of the dwell time resulting in a reduction in specimen damage. The effect is most pronounced in high scattering cross section regions associated with inelastically scattered electrons. This results in reduction in energy deposited into the specimen and a corresponding reduction in damage and drift.
As the range of beam sensitive materials is broad, the application space for Tempo is large. Key areas where Tempo is immediately beneficial include STEM imaging and spectroscopy of biological materials, metal organic frameworks, perovskites, battery electrode materials, zeolites, and other materials that suffer from degradation or drift related to poor thermal conductivity. Because Tempo is viable in such a wide range of STEM experiments, and there are so many beam sensitive materials to be studied, the applications are far reaching.
