An electron backscatter diffraction device is an important accessory for a scanning electron microscope and can provide crystal structure orientation and phase content data through analysis of electron backscatter diffraction patterns. The acquisition of these data depends on pattern indexing, including interplanar angle calculation and crystal plane indexation. The coordinates of the source point are key points for interplanar angle calculation, and they vary with the movement of the incident beam. In this study, we first combined the grey gradient calculation with screen moving method to achieve accurate positioning of source point and obtained coordinates of source point with sub‐pixel precision. The errors of three coordinates were 0.07%, 0.06% and 0.04%, respectively. By using this coordinate of source point to conduct interplanar angle calculation the maximum error was 0.53°, which was a good proof of the accuracy of source point positioning. Then we established the relationship between source point coordinates variation and incident beam movement. Coordinates can be given out based on the displacement of beam directly. And to illustrate the accuracy, interplanar angle calculation was performed and the maximum error was 0.81°. This means that the relationship between variation of source point coordinates and beam movement is highly accurate.

In this study, a new method is established for indexing electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns assisted by the Kikuchi bandwidth. This method utilises both interplanar angles and interplanar spacings to determine the Miller indices of the Kikuchi bands in EBSD patterns to improve the efficiency and precision of indexing in the EBSD system. Two samples of single-crystal silicon were investigated to validate the method based on (a) the detection of the edges of the EBSD Kikuchi bands and (b) the calculation of the Kikuchi bandwidths. The relationship between the Kikuchi bandwidth and the interplanar spacing at different positions was established, and the interplanar spacing of the corresponding lattice plane of each Kikuchi band was calculated with the use of the Kikuchi bandwidth information. The relative errors between the theoretical and experimental interplanar spacings are small, with an average relative error of 2.6% and a minimum relative error of 1.04%. The results indicated that the Miller index of each Kikuchi band can be determined accurately with this new method. It is demonstrated that use of this new method improves the efficiency and accuracy of the EBSD system.