Patent ID: 7105813

Claim:
A method of analyzing the composition of an object, comprising: (a) disposing a plurality of objects all together in a chamber; (b) selecting one of the objects and moving the selected object to a fixed analysis position in the chamber; (c) rotating the selected object, independently of the other objects, at the analysis position while the other objects are maintained stationary; (d) irradiating the rotating object with primary ions produced by an ion generator; (e) collecting secondary ions emitted from the rotating object as the result of the object being irradiated; (f) analyzing the collected secondary ions to determine a composition of the object; (g) subsequently selecting another one of the objects; (h) moving the another one of the objects to said analysis position; (i) rotating the selected another one of the objects at the analysis position; and (j) performing (d)–(f) on said another one of the objects.