The contrast‐to‐noise ratio for image quality evaluation in scanning electron microscopy

2014/12/22 by Felix Timischl · 1 voice · 5 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #Industrial Vision Systems and Defect Detection #Surface Roughness and Optical Measurements

paper · doi:10.1002/sca.21179

openalex publication_date 2014/12/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) is presented and characterized as a tool for quantitative noise measurement of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Analogies as well as differences between the CNR and the widely used signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are analytically and experimentally investigated. With respect to practical SEM image evaluation using the contrast-to-noise ratio, a standard specimen and an evaluation program are presented.

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Discussions

• Say I have two signals $S_1$ and $S_2$ with normal distributed noises. They have mean values $\mu_1$ and $\mu_2$ and standard deviations $\sigma_1$ and $\sigma_2$ . The signal-to-noise ratios of these [stackexchange, 1 points]

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