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8.3 Units of Measurement

With a few exceptions, both the SP-ICE-3 Card and the ClientAPI assume the appropriately scaled SI Units, either fundamental or derived, for most numeric quantities specified as parameters or properties of:

SI Units used for parameter and property values.

These units are used to specify parameter and property values for List Commands, Process Variables, Scanner Configurations, Laser Configurations, and some Control Commands.

Quantity

Unit

Examples

Notes

Length

micrometre (µm)

JUMP_ABS 5000 5000;

AppendJumpAbs(5000,5000);

i.e. 5 mm on both axes.

Angle

radian (rad)

MARK_ARC_ABS 0 0 0.5;

AppendArcAbs(0, 0, 0.5);

i.e. 0.5 rad.

Time

microsecond (µs)

LM_WIDTH 54.32;

AppendLmWidth(54.32);

LASER_ON 16 2.5 500;

Note  Notice: the resolution of the card's timer hardware is 1/64 µs (0.015625 µs).

All timing parameter and property values will be automatically rounded down to the nearest 1/64 µs.

Jump and Mark Speeds

metre per second (ms-1)

MARK_SPEED 30;

AppendMarkSpeed(30);

i.e. 30 ms-1 ( or equivalently: 30 µm/µs ).

Frequency

MegaHertz (MHz)

LM_FREQUENCY 0.05

AppendLmFrequency(0.05);

i.e. 50 kHz.

Other units used for parameter and property values.

These units are used to specify parameter and property values for List Commands, Process Variables, Scanner Configurations, Laser Configurations, and some Control Commands.

Quantity

Unit

Examples

Notes

Laser Power

[numerator of scalar fraction]
n / 65535

SET_POWER 65535

AppendPower(65535);

i.e. n = 65535 for 100% power.

Magnification

[scalar factor]

MAGNIFICATION_ABS 1.5 false

AppendMagnificationAbs(1.5, false);

i.e. set absolute magnification factor to 150% of the original size.

Magnification Speed

[rate of change of scalar factor] (µs-1)

MAGNIFICATION_SPEED 0.5e-6

AppendMagnificationSpeed(0.5e-6);

i.e. magnification factor will change at a rate of

0.5 x 10-6 µs-1 ( or 0.5 s-1 ).

Units used with Process Control Commands.

Timeout values are specified canonically in milliseconds for all relevant Process Control Commands.

Quantity

Unit

Examples

Notes

Timeout

millisecond (ms)

ListAPIWaitForListIdle

ListAPIWaitForProgress

ListAPIWaitForListDone

Timeouts are measured independently of any hardware timers.

See Also