Patent ID: 7547882

Claim:
In an SPM (scanning probe microscopy) system, a method for collecting scan data comprising: positioning the probe to a first location on a surface to be scanned; collecting scan data along a first scan path comprising: obtaining information about the surface using a tip portion of the probe at a current location on the surface; translating the probe to a next location on the surface, including translating the probe in a first direction and in a second direction; and repeating the steps of obtaining and translating to collect scan data for a plurality of locations, wherein scan data for each location comprises information about the surface at said each location and a pair of first coordinates which identify said each location along the first direction and along the second direction; repeating the step of collecting for subsequent scan paths; and associating some of the scan data with pairs of second coordinates, so that said some of the data appear to have been collected at locations indicated by said pairs of second coordinates, wherein subsequent processing of the scan data is performed based on the pairs of second coordinates for those scan data that have corresponding pairs of second coordinates and based on the pairs of first coordinates for those scan data that do not have corresponding pairs of second coordinates.