Patent ID: 7222025

Claim:
A method for analyzing molecules, comprising the steps of: (1) directing at least one filtered excitation beam from at least one excitation source to a first substrate having a control; (2) determining one or more excitation values which related to the at least one filtered-excitation beam directed to the control; (3) detecting an emission signal having one or more emission values; (4) adjusting the at least one excitation source to obtain an excitation reference value when the one or more emission values match a standard value from the control; (5) scanning a plurality of pixel locations on a second substrate having a plurality of probe locations using the excitation reference value to generate a normalization factor; (6) adjusting at least one of the one or more emission values based, at least in part, on the normalization factor; and (7) generating one of either a normalized emission signal and a normalized emission signal data in response to said adjusting of said at least one of the one or more emission values.