Patent 7490009 was granted and assigned to FEI Company on February, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method of analyzing spectroscopic data, the method comprising collecting spatially resolved measurement spectroscopic data of a sample for a series of measurements spots, assigning the measurement spots into a predefined set of spectral categories, based on characteristics of the spectroscopic data of the respective measurement spots, identifying groupings of the measurement spots based on their respective spectral categories and their spatial relationships, and assigning each grouping of measurement spots to a fundamental sample unit data object.