Patent ID: 7403867

Claim:
An apparatus for analyzing particles comprising: a particle beam source providing a beam of particles; a modulator for modulating the particle beam by passing it substantially unaltered during on periods, and affecting the beam during off periods according to a broadband binary sequence to produce a modulated particle beam; a detector for detecting at least one attribute of the modulated particle beam and generating a detector output signal in response thereto; and a processor for recovering information from the detector output signal using a probability based estimation method, the probability based estimation method: i. compensating for non-ideal characteristics of the components of the apparatus by using a system response function, p, that represents a response of the particle beam to the broadband binary sequence; and ii. allowing higher resolution to be obtained than a nominal time unit corresponding to a clock period of the modulator would provide without the broadband binary sequence, depending upon at least one of a signal to noise ratio, an oversampling of the time base, and a rise time of the response function.