Release Notes

Base Software

The Global Toolbar offers you a quick overview of the microscope's status, providing you control over motorized components such as the stage, focus, and objective changer. You can access the toolbar in both Free and Job Mode.

A new Run Experiment Workbench enables you the execution of experiments without a user interface, facilitating streamlined automation. You can save the experiments on the available acquisition workbenches to the archive.

2D Toolkit

Added a selection menu in the Segmentation step of the Image Analysis Wizard to improve usability: A dialog provides you a picture of a typical use case and descriptive text for available segmentation options, including AI solutions.

AI Toolkit

Added an information in the segmentation steps of the 2D Toolkit and applicable Materials Apps, respectively, notifying you that models trained on images with different pixel types or different channel structure than the currently selected image will not be displayed in the model selection drop-down.

Docker Desktop is required to use instance segmentation models trained on arivis Cloud for image segmentation in ZEN Toolkit 2D or ZEN Toolkit Material Apps (“AI ready”). Docker Desktop is available from the ZEISS Microscopy Installer.

Developer Toolkit

The method for interacting with Microsoft Excel through the .NET framework has been updated to improve compatibility and performance. The previous approach for opening and manipulating Microsoft Excel has been replaced with a more robust method using
System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID and System.Activator.CreateInstance.

• Old code:
  import clr
  New code (ZEN core 3.13.onwards):
  import clr
  import System

• Old code:
  clr.AddReference("Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel")
  import Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel as Excel
  New code (ZEN core 3.13.onwards):
  clr.AddReference("Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel")

• Old code:
  excel_application = Excel.ApplicationClass()
  excel_application.visible = True
  New code (ZEN core 3.13.onwards):
  import Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel as Excel
  excel_type = System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Excel.Application")
  excel_app = System.Activator.CreateInstance(excel_type)
  excel_app.Visible = True

• Old code:
  workbook = excel_application.Workbooks.Add()
  worksheet = workbook.ActiveSheet
  New code (ZEN core 3.13.onwards):
  workbook = excel_app.Workbooks.Add()
  worksheet = workbook.ActiveSheet

Review and update any scripts relying on the previous code structure to use Microsoft Excel.

Technical Cleanliness Analysis (TCA)

Efficiency increase: added a pretrained Intellesis Object Classification Model for classification of Mica particles. Mica particles are silicate minerals with high temperature resistance and occur in the battery manufacturing process. Because of their shiny appearance they are often misclassified by default as “metallic-shiny” particles. The new introduced pretrained Mica ML-Model supports the classification of non-transparent Mica particles by default as “non shiny”. The model is also well suited for the detection of metallic and other non-metallic particles.

Usability improvement: For the TCA loaded image workflows a polarization orientation switch is now available in Edit View as part of the Size Distribution View. The switch enables you to inspect particles in two-channel-images with the applied polarization orientation used for acquisition. The switch is also available in the archived particle document.

Battery Inspection: For battery inspection the total equivalent particle area calculation is added. The calculation table and resulting Ne is shown in the TCA report (Component Cleanliness) when selected and saved to the archive by default.

Standard Update: The VDA 19.1 standard was updated to the current version and offers the total fiber length, a deviation calculation for the occupancy rate and job templates for the Extended/Free Analysis.

TCA reporting: Added an option for the selection of classification tables with or without displaying the size classes in addition to the letter code for the size classes. Added an option for the selection of classification tables with or without displaying the size classes in addition to the letter code for the size classes.

Non-Metallic Inclusion Analysis (NMI)

Standard-related updates.

ASTM E45 was updated to the latest revision (2025). The newest standard version offers mainly editorial changes; the inclusion formation and methods calculation are not changed.

Oversized inclusions are now documented in the report with an additional table. This is valid for ASTM E45, ISO 4967, JIS G 0555 and GB/T 10561.

The minimum inclusion width was changed to a minimum value 2 in the corresponding NMI standard templates for ISO 4967, JIS G 0555 and GB/T 10561.

SEM Deconvolution

The new SEM Deconvolution Toolkit is available in ZEN analyzer allowing you to enhance the clarity and detail of acquired electron microscopy images on offline workstations.

Axiocam ERc v2
O-INSPECT duo
SEM/Crossbeam

The Axiocam ERc v2 is not supported anymore with ZEN core 3.13. The driver support has been discontinued and you cannot use the camera anymore in the newest ZEN core version.

ZEN core 3.13 is not yet released for the O-INSPECT duo! ZEN core 3.11 is the currently released version for the O-INSPECT duo. Please do not upgrade to ZEN core 3.13 until further notice.

The ZEN core 3.13 SEM profile has been tested and is released only for SEM/Crossbeam systems with hASAP scan generator. When upgrading older systems, you must take the corresponding hardware upgrade into account.

Base Software

• The position of the scale bar inserted into images is now configurable. The initial position can be set in absolute or relative coordinates.
• The Tool set functionality, design and creation workflow has been improved. It is now also possible to add a description for each tool set.
• The Export has been moved from the Free Mode Exit dialog and is now available in the general Free Mode application bar.
• We reworked the Download window in the AI Template manager for instance segmentation models. This allows now filtering and sorting of instance segmentation models available on arivis Cloud. The Download window now also gives more details on the selected models such as supported pixel types or number of channels the model was trained on.

Motorized Acquisition Toolkit

Additional options have been added to the Tiles Acquisition workbenches. It is now possible to switch between the acquisition modes (Meander, Comb, Spiral) and the acquisition order for multiple tile regions can be set.

3D Toolkit

The 3D viewer also shows orthogonal 2D projections in XZ, ZY and XY. In order to deeply investigate a 3D volume visually, the user can work with slices and now also set the thickness of these slices in the 3D viewer. By using maximum, minimum or average intensity projection, fine regions of interest can be visually identified.

2D Toolkit

In the Frames step of the Image Analysis Wizard it is now possible to directly see the size of the defined frame in scaled units. If it is necessary that a frame of a certain size is created, this is now easily possible in the Image Analysis Wizard.

Additional measurement features were introduced to allow calculating the area covered by detected objects in a frame with respect to the whole image:

• Image Plane Area Percentage: The percentage of area of the regions in relation to the area of the whole image including areas without pixel values.
• Image Plane Data Area Percentage: The percentage of the area of the regions in relation to the area of the whole image, only for areas which contain pixel values.

In order to have a more consistent naming with the newly introduced features, the existing features were renamed:

• Frame Area Percentage (old name: Area Percentage)
• Frame Data Area Percentage (old name: Image Area Percentage)
• Frame Area Percentage Cut (old name: Area Percentage Cut)

These features calculate the area of the detected objects with respect to the defined measurement frame.

Existing image analysis settings created with older ZEN core versions will still work without adaptions.

GxP Toolkit

• The logging functionality in GxP mode has been improved and additional details have been added to several logging parameters.
• It is now possible to reject results in GxP mode when countersigning them. These are marked with the reason for rejection in Browse Results.
• The exported Audit Trail PDF is now secured and cannot be easily edited anymore.

Technical Cleanliness Analysis (TCA)

Note: In April 2023, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) awarded ZEISS with its machine learning based object classification in TCA first place in the REINER! Fraunhofer Technology Award. ZEISS One Scan Technology for TCA and particle analysis has been granted a US patent (US 11,692,928 B2) in July 2023.

General improvements

• The reporting in TCA was extended and offers new the adjustable selection of the number of largest particles per type.
• The width size classification in the TCA standard template was extended by a new parameter: max. inscribed circle.
• Performance optimization was achieved for the Size Distribution View (filter options for the particle gallery) and the TCA report generation is now faster by a factor up to 10 times depending on the workstation and job configuration.
• Dual camera: the particle shift correction persists after closing the job template.

Approval rating and display of approval results

• The approval rating for particle counts in class all is now based on a direct actual-target comparison. Both options for the definition of allowed particle counts per size class support this mode.
• The Size Distribution View displays for the size classification table in addition the allowed number of particles per type and size class. This enables a direct comparison of measured particle counts with defined limit values from the acceptance criterion and is also displayed in the archived size classification tables and the archived result viewer (=ParticleDocument).

Particle type differentiation

• For particle type classification the Optimized Mode was introduced. The Optimized Mode provides a significantly improved automated classification of darker metallic particles. The new mode increases the productivity by time saving during particle inspection and revision.

Non-Metallic Inclusion Analysis (NMI)

• The NMI standard template offers new the option to select individual inclusion width parameter for type A, C and D. The functionality is available for ASTM E45, ISO 4967, JIS G0555 and GB/T 10561. The new mode allows enhanced comparability between ASTM E45 and ISO 4967 (and related standards).
• The standard specific inclusion table was significantly extended and contains now information on the applied classification width parameter for type A, C and D and results for additional inclusion width parameter including the new parameter area/length. The table provides deep insights and a transparent overview of the results of the classification by inclusion size and type.

ZEISS Zaphire Connector

The Zaphire Connector has been discontinued with ZEN core 3.8 due to technical incompatibilities. Any customers wanting to directly transfer images from ZEN core to Zaphire have to use ZEN core 3.6 or earlier.

Smartproof 5 and Visioner 1

• ZEN core 3.11 is not compatible with the Smartproof 5. The ZEN core version for Smartproof 5 has been discontinued and the last compatible version is ZEN core 3.8.
• ZEN core 3.11 version must be ordered also for Visioner 1. The previously existing special configurations are not available anymore.
• For upgrades to ZEN core 3.11 the general ZEN core 3.11 upgrade numbers do apply also for Visioner 1.

ZEN core starter

• For ZEN core starter 3.11 only a limited number of options are available. Do not upgrade a ZEN core starter version 3.4 or earlier and licensed modules as this might result in a loss of functionality.
• In general, the included functionality for ZEN core starter has increased reducing the need for some of the previously needed modules.

Base Software

We have extended and improved the Free Mode user interface:

• You can save and easily restore Free Mode configurations including workbenches and tools using the new Free Mode templates functionality.
• To organize workbenches better, you can sub-divide them by categorizing tools into individual Tool sets.

We have introduced a new data management mode which allows you to store results in selectable project folders at the start of the work. In Project Folder Mode the ZEN core Archive is disabled for result storage.

A new tool was introduced for dual camera systems which allows you to directly switch between cameras in every acquisition workbench.

New Magnetic Cursor for Interactive Measurements: The new cursor allows you to position relevant points more precisely and easily.

3D Toolkit

Orthogonal 2D projections in XZ, ZY and XY are now available in the 3D viewer. In order to deeply investigate a 3D volume visually, you can set slices in the 3D viewer and change the position and angle of the slice, and cut the data in both directions away.

Technical Cleanliness Analysis (TCA)

Note: In April 2023, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) awarded ZEISS with its machine learning based object classification in TCA first place in the REINER! Fraunhofer Technology Award. ZEISS One Scan Technology for TCA and particle analysis has been granted a US patent (US 11,692,928 B2) in July 2023.

New features for TCA

With ZEN core release v3.9 the Dual Camera Option for the TCA Edit View was introduced. This functionality was extended and provides now with ZEN core v3.10:

• a manual offset correction for particle centering in live mode of the color camera in TCA Edit View
• the option to select the color camera in the EDF acquisition step

The extension of the TCA Edit View improves the efficiency in routine analysis. Switching between the Axiocam 705 pol with different polarization orientations (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°) and the color mode of the second camera offers you extended sample information, supports the identification of “difficult” metallic particles, and facilitates the detection of particulate contamination sources for root cause analysis. With the new introduced functionality to the EDF acquisition step it is now possible for you to acquire color images for the TCA report.

Note: The Dual Camera functionality for TCA is best supported by the combination of Axiocam 705 pol with Axiocam 305 color or 705 color and is highly recommended.

ZEISS Zaphire Connector

The Zaphire Connector has been discontinued with ZEN core 3.8 due to technical incompatibilities. To transfer images from ZEN core to Zaphire use ZEN core 3.6 or earlier.

Smartproof 5 and Visioner 1

ZEN core 3.10 is not compatible with Smartproof 5. The ZEN core version for Smartproof 5 has been discontinued. The last compatible version is ZEN core 3.8.

ZEN core 3.10 version must be ordered also for ZEN Visioner 1. The previously existing special configurations are not available anymore.

For upgrades to ZEN core 3.10 the general ZEN core 3.10 upgrade numbers do apply also for Visioner 1.

ZEN core starter

For ZEN core starter 3.10 only a limited number of options are available. Do not upgrade a ZEN core starter version 3.4 or earlier and licensed modules as this might result in a loss of functionality.

In general, the included functionality for ZEN core starter has increased reducing the need for some of the previously needed modules.