TY - JOUR A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Procop, M. T1 - A method to test the performance of an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) N2 - A test material for routine performance evaluation of energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometers (EDS) is presented. It consists of a synthetic, thick coating of C, Al, Mn, Cu, and Zr, in an elemental composition that provides interference-free characteristic X-ray lines of similar intensities at 10 kV scanning electron microscope voltage. The EDS energy resolution at the C-K, Mn-Lα, Cu-Lα, Al-K, Zr-Lα, and Mn-Kα lines, the calibration state of the energy scale, and the Mn-Lα/Mn-Kα intensity ratio as a measure for the low-energy detection efficiency are calculated by a dedicated software package from the 10 kV spectrum. Measurements at various input count rates and processor shaping times enable an estimation of the operation conditions for which the X-ray spectrum is not yet corrupted by pile-up events. Representative examples of EDS systems characterized with the test material and the related software are presented and discussed. KW - Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) KW - Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX, XEDS) KW - Scanning electron microscope (SEM) KW - Energy resolution KW - Test material KW - Performance check KW - ISO 15632 PY - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927614001652 SN - 1431-9276 SN - 1435-8115 VL - 20 IS - 05 SP - 1556 EP - 1564 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-31565 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -