Patent ID: 7243030

Claim:
A method for determining the presence of and/or a measurement for a plurality of constituents in a composite signal extending about a spectrum of interest obtained from a target sample undergoing analysis, comprising: generating a mathematical design matrix of constituent data comprising a plurality of selected individual mathematical constituent matrix data sets, each constituent matrix data set including constituent amplitude values of a respective spectrum lineshape of a selected independent parameter over a desired number of data points of a known reference sample that is generated by a predetermined analysis method, the reference sample having a known concentration; generating a composite mathematical matrix comprising a data set of amplitude values of a composite spectrum lineshape of the selected independent parameter over the desired number of data points for a target sample undergoing quantitative analysis that is generated by the predetermined analysis method, the composite lineshape comprising spectral contributions from a plurality of the selected individual constituents included in the design matrix; rotating the design matrix to provide a rotated design matrix of principal components; selectively excluding data corresponding to certain of the principal components in the rotated design matrix; generating a reduced design matrix based on the steps of rotating and excluding; computing regression fit weighting coefficients based on data in the reduced design matrix and the composite matrix for the plurality of individual constituents and multiplying the regression coefficients by the known concentration of the reference sample to generate a concentration value of at least one constituent and/or at least one group of constituents in the target sample; then electronically storing or outputting or storing and outputting the generated concentration value.