Alignment procedures

The alignment procedures of the Tecnai microscope are accessible through the Alignment control panel. The procedures, split into logical units such as Gun, Beam HM-TEM, Image HM-TEM, etc., are displayed in a treeview. Each procedure contains subprocedures that are accessible by clicking on the '+' in front of the procedure name (or double-clicking on the procedure name).

Alignments can be stored to file and wholly or in part restored to the microscope. Each alignment part corresponds to an alignment procedure (such as Gun, HM-Beam, HM-Image, etc.). Alignments for all users are located together and listed in the list of available alignments. The controls for saving and restoring alignments are found in the Alignment File Control Panel.

Note: Alignments saved under version 1.0 of the Tecnai software are not directly compatible with version 1.9 but can be reloaded into the microscope. Existing version 1.0 alignment files will be converted if the owner is the same as the current user. Non-converted alignments only provide a choice of Gun and Column (as in version 1.0), while converted or 1.9 version alignments have their selections split properly over the alignment procedures.

For more background information on how the microscope works with alignments, see 'Alignments in the Tecnai microscope'.

A few rules:

• You do not change any alignments by walking through a procedure. Only when you change a setting in a step (usually with the Multifunction knobs, but in some cases also the Focus or Intensity) do you change alignments. Changes become operational immediately. They are stored when the alignment procedure is exited (Done).
• Start a procedure by clicking on the title of the first subprocedure (or the individual subprocedure required if not the whole procedure is needed). Stop a procedure by pressing Done, or Previous while in the first subprocedure step, or Next on the last subprocedure step. Going to another tab (where the Alignment Control Panel is no longer visible) also exits the alignment procedures.
• Navigation through a procedure is normally done with Next or Previous (the buttons on the control panel or R1 and L1 on the Control Pads). Using these buttons proceeds through the 'short' procedure, automatically skipping less-often used alignments (like pivot points). The skipped subprocedures can be accessed only by clicking on the title of the particular subprocedure. Navigation then may proceed to other, less-often used subprocedures. Subprocedures that are skipped are indicated by a different icon (blue arrow, on yellow, pointing down) and which are not (blue arrow, on white, pointing to the right).
• Each subprocedure can contain several steps (which are listed as '1 of 4' or '2 of 3'). You cannot go directly to a 'hidden' step because the first step sets the microscope in an appropriate condition for the alignment. In some cases first steps are skipped when using Next (because the previous subprocedure already put the microscope in the proper operating conditions so it doesn't need to be done again).
• Each (main) procedure is stand-alone in the sense that you cannot move automatically from one procedure to another by using Next or Previous, only with the mouse.
• Alignment procedures may differ depending on the level of user, with experts and supervisor levels having more alignments accessible than users.
• All subprocedures have on-line help pages that describe the purpose and operation of the particular alignment. Press F1 while a subprocedure is active and the proper page should come up. If another page comes up instead, the Alignment control panel was not the last window used. Click on the panel and press F1 again. When the Auto help check box is checked, the help pages are displayed and updated automatically.
• You can move to another control panel as long as you stay within the current tab (you can also pop-up panels on the lower right), but if you move to another tab, then the alignment is exited.
• In many the alignments steps the microscope is switched to specific magnifications, intensity settings, spot sizes, etc. There is however no protection against changes (sometimes a procedure step warns against staying within the current magnification range).

Note: The rotation center alignment is part of the 'Beam' procedures, not the 'Image' procedures (it is based on tilting the beam to the optical axis).

Tip: In some cases it may be useful to be able to see the settings of the most important lenses (C2, Obj, Diff). If the Alignments control panel is inserted in the user interface under a workset tab, define the status panel display (typically the one on the right) to have these settings listed.

Click on the image (when the cursor is a hand) to jump to a topic.

 
     Procedure selection

Selection is done in the treeview that lists the procedures. Click on the '+' in front of the procedure name (or double-clicking on the procedure name). The treeview branch of the procedure will open and display the subprocedures. Click on the first subprocedure visible or any other subprocedure if only part of the alignment needs to be (re)done.

Subprocedures that follow the standard sequence (that is, they are not skipped) are designated by the icon with the blue arrow (on white) pointing to the right (into the subprocedure), whereas skipped subprocedures are designated by a blue arrow (on yellow) pointing down.

 
     | <

Pressing the '|<'  button moves to the first step of the alignment procedure (back to the very beginning).

 
     <

Pressing the '<' (Previous) button steps one step back in the alignment procedure. If the current step is a first step of a subprocedure, the step always goes to the first step of the previous subprocedure (you cannot step backwards through one subprocedure to another). This button is equivalent to the L1 user button on the right-hand Control Pad.

 
     >

Pressing the '>' (Next) button steps to the next step of the alignment procedure.

 
     xx of yy

Indicates the current page of the subprocedure (xx) and the total number of pages (yy).

 
     Done

Switches alignment off.

 
     Procedure instructions

This field displays the instructions for the current alignment step.

 
     Defaults

Pressing the defaults button resets the current alignment setting to that of the next higher level (depending on availability supervisor, service, factory, defaults). The level reverted to is indicated below the button (> Defaults in the example shown).

 
     Reset

Pressing the Reset button resets the currently selected alignment to the setting it had when the step was entered. It allows you to undo any changes you made in the current step.

 
     Restore

Pressing the Restore button resets the currently selected alignment to the setting it had before you pressed the Reset button. It allows you to undo the effect of a Reset.

 
     Auto help

When the Auto help function is on, the on-help topic for the particular subprocedure is displayed automatically alongside (and also updated when a new subprocedure is started).

 
     Large font

When the Large font option is checked, the instructions are displayed in a much larger (more easily readable) font (the downside is that the instruction will often not fit into the area available and the scrollbar on the right-hand side must be used to scroll the rest of the instructions into view).

 
     Flap-out button

The flap-out button leads to the Alignment control panel flap-out containing the Deflectors and File control panels.

Page last modified on 05/18/01