Patent Document ID: 7569077
Application ID: 11763677
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of position control for scanning probe spectroscopy, comprising: (a) conducting a global scan of a specimen; (b) generating a global image from the global scan; (c) presenting the global image to a user; (d) receiving a request from the user for spectroscopic analysis of the specimen at a target location within the global scan area and with respect to a reference characteristic; (e) defining a reference area including at least a portion of the reference characteristic; (f) defining a search area including the reference area; (g) moving a probe to the search area; (h) conducting a local scan of the search area; (i) generating a local image of at least a portion of the search area from the local scan of the search area; (j) analyzing the local image to identify the reference characteristic; (k) determining probe positional error by comparing the global and local images to identify differences between positions of the reference characteristic in the images; (l) generating a position offset from the determined probe positional error; (m) moving the probe to the target location using the position offset generated from the determined probe positional error; (n) conducting a spectroscopic analysis of the specimen at the target location; (o) conducting a subsequent local scan of at least a portion of the search area; (p) generating a subsequent local image from the subsequent local scan of the at least a portion of the search area; (q) analyzing the subsequent local image to identify the reference characteristic; and (r) determining probe positional error by comparing the local images to identify differences between positions of the reference characteristic in the images.