Measurement of the Length of Objects on Scanning Probe Microscope Images Using Curvature Detectors

The problem of the automatic detection of the longitudinal dimensions of objects on images obtained from microscope sounding is examined. Solution of this problem can be brought about in the field of production monitoring of materials and products of microelectronics and nanotechnology. Comparison was done of existing tools for measuring the length of objects on a test image containing geometric figures with known dimensions. A description is given of the advantages of measuring the lengths of objects directly on a halftone image by means of generating the frame of an object by a software detector of surface curvature, particularly the Circle two-dimensional detector program, based on analysis of the curvature of line and column profilograms of the raster image. Curvature is estimated by the area of a figure that is bounded by the profilogram on a particular interval. the features of measuring the length of objects by means of generating the structure from the local maxima of curvature are considered. It is shown that the curvature detector makes it possible to determine more precisely the length of objects with superimposed contours and a significant range of luminosity. the algorithms for operation of a detector that generates the structure of the object and determines its length are presented. the results of studies that confirm the feasibility of the proposed algorithms are given. Comparative analysis with existing tools for measuring lengths, carried out on images of the domains of a magnetic disk and nanopolymer fibers, has shown the proper operation of the detector in selecting the structure of the object and measuring its length.