Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for obtaining and displaying SEM X-ray line scans and maps for data collection and presentation in energy dispersive X-ray analysis of materials, having ratemeter circuitry providing a voltage output proportional to the intensity of detected pulses in an energy window and an absolute digital representation of the intensity count rate both corrected for dead time, input multiplexing and multiple output buffering of the ratemeter to accomodate multiple channel signals, a feedback loop from said ratemeter to provide display image enhancement, inhibit circuitry to eliminate background signals, signal averging circuitry to permit storage of multiple line scan of multiple single channel analyser outputs in a multi-channel analyser for later processing and display circuitry for displaying stored line scans.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for dynamic variable scaling of spectral data utilizing the full available display area. Circuitry is provided to accept an initial upper scale limit. As a displayed data peak exceeds the initial preset limit, the maximum full scale limit is recomputed and the scale adjusted to accommodate the new data peaks on the full display area, each recomputation using as an upper scale limit a value slightly higher than the greatest peak value encountered. The method and apparatus may be utilized to vary dynamically each axis of a data display.