Patent ID: 8707461

Claim:
A method of scanning a sample with a probe, the method comprising: scanning the sample using at least two scan patterns; while scanning the sample with the first scan pattern sequentially acquiring data resulting from said scanning and mapping the data obtained in a first memory area associated with the first scan pattern, the memory area comprising a multitude of memory locations, each memory location associated with a nominal scan position (x,y), while scanning the sample with the second scan pattern acquiring data resulting from said scanning and mapping the data obtained in a second memory area associated with the second scan pattern, the memory area comprising a multitude of memory locations, each memory location associated with a nominal scan position (u,v), forming an improved image by combining the data from the first and the second memory area and mapping the combined data in a memory area associated with the improved image, each point of the memory area associated with the improved image associated with a nominal scan position, wherein the two scan patterns show a set of multiple intersections where the scan patterns intersect at an angle, the intersections not necessarily coinciding with a nominal scan position, from which set a group of crossings C is selected, the position of each nominal scan position (x,y) acquired during the first scan is adjusted and the position of each nominal scan position (u,v) acquired during the second scan is adjusted, thereby defining a new set of intersections and a new group of crossings C, in such a manner that the similarity of the actual or interpolated data at the newly defined crossings is improved, measuring a temporal coherence between the nominal scan positions, the adjustment of each nominal scan position is governed by the adjustment of other nominal scan positions using a weight factor that is a function of the temporal coherence between said nominal scan position and said other nominal scan positions, the adjusted nominal scan positions (x,y) are used to map the data of the first memory area to one or more memory locations of the improved image and the adjusted nominal scan positions (u,v) are used to map the data of the second memory area to one or more memory locations of the improved image.