Quartz PCI - Comprehensive Microscope Image Software

Quartz PCI is the preferred microscope image acquisition, processing, archiving and measurement software of thousands of researchers around the world. PCI software helps you manage all aspects of the imaging process including acquisition, processing, annotation, measurement, reporting, archiving and retrieval.

Quartz PCI software is available in both Lab and Office versions. Quartz PCI Lab is installed on instrument PCs and includes image capture functions. Quartz PCI Office is installed on office workstations and allows image processing and annotation to be carried out offline, away from the instrument. PCI Office includes all of the functionality of PCI Lab, except for data acquisition.

Windows 11 compatibility

PCI 11 is the first version that supports Microsoft Windows 11. It also works on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Unicode support

PCI is now a Unicode application. This means images can be annotated and reports can be generated using Unicode characters. This facilitates use of PCI with languages that do not use Roman characters and the sharing of data within international organizations.

Mouse wheel zooming and scrolling

You can now use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out and to scroll the image horizontally and vertically. To scroll vertically, simply spin the scroll wheel. To scroll horizontally, hold the Shift key down while rotating the scroll wheel. To zoom, hold the Ctrl key down.

Works with more types of instruments

The PCI File Import Function will now read calibration information from files saved by Delong electron microscopes and Keyence light microscopes, in addition to the numerous types of files supported by earlier versions of PCI.

Field of View (FOV) read out

For calibrated images, PCI 11 will display the field of view of the image in the status bar under the image.

Improvements to the Automated Measurement Module

The release of PCI 11 coincides with the release of Version 8 of our Automated Measurement Module. PCI-AM can now check measurements against tolerances that you specify and flag outliers. It adds the ability to rotate the image automatically to orient the features horizontally and vertically. A new layer detection tool is included and manual horizontal reference lines can also be added. In addition, PCI-AM also includes advanced improvements to our edge detection algorithms.

Quartz Imaging offers specialized modules for image capture from digital and analog electron microscopes (SEMs, STEMs, TEMs), light microscopes, video sources, TWAIN devices and virtually any other kind of imaging instrument. PCI’s comprehensive support for many types of instruments means that you only need to learn how to use one software package to acquire data from all of your laboratory instruments. Even EDX data can be handled through PCI’s ability to import EMSA files.

• Options available to acquire images from virtually any image producing device including slow scan SEM and STEM, TWAIN, video capture and digital file import
• Imports images in numerous image formats
• Imports EDX data in EMSA format

Once you have acquired your images, PCI Lab & Office provide a complete set of image processing and display functions including image zooming, pseudo-coloring, brightness, contrast and gamma adjustment, color correction, smoothing, sharpening etc. Anaglyph stereo images can be constructed and aligned.

PCI also has the ability to reverse raster rotation, to rotate images by arbitrary angles and to perform tilt correction in order to prepare images for measurement.

Quartz PCI performs image sharpness measurement on SEM images in accordance with ISO standard ISO/TS 24597:2011.

• Many functions for improving and adjusting the appearance of your images
• Reverse raster rotation
• Tilt correction
• Construction of anaglyph stereo image
• SEM resolution measurement

Quartz PCI includes numerous tools for annotating your images. All annotations are contained in a separate overlay layer so that the image behind is preserved and so that the annotations can be easily moved and adjusted. It is possible to save a default overlay that contains, for example, your company logo or a Confidential indicator, that will be applied automatically to all images that are acquired. At the appropriate time, you can choose to burn the overlay into the image.

• Complete set of annotation tools
• Add micron marker to images
• Use of overlay layer preserves image
• Ability to burn in overlay
• Can have auto applied annotation (e.g., company logo or confidential indicator)

In addition to the standard annotation tools, PCI includes a comprehensive set of image measurement tools. Like the annotation tools, these tools operate in the overlay layer allowing measurements to be adjusted after their initial placement. As you make measurements, the results are displayed both on the image and in a spreadsheet grid below the image. The contents of this grid can be saved and easily copied into other software such as Microsoft® Excel. In applications, such as quality control or semiconductor process development, where the same measurements are repeated on numerous images, you can set up a Measurement Sequence that steps the analyst through the measurement procedure.

Quartz Imaging has also recently introduced our Automated Measurement (AM) Module for PCI which performs automated measurements on semiconductor features.

• Complete set of image measurement tools
• Measurement data displayed in grid and can be easily exported
• Measurement Sequence Feature saves time for repeated measurements
• New Automated Measurement module for PCI