Method of X-ray mapping analysis

A method of X-ray mapping analysis in an X-ray mapping device comprising an excitation beam source which irradiates samples with a primary beam to excite X-rays, a controllable sample stage movable in at least longitudinal and lateral axes, an X-ray detector which detects said X-rays from said samples and a data processor which processes data, said method comprising the steps of:

• scanning said sample stage in a grid pattern with a feed pitch finer than said primary beam size and detecting the X-ray intensity of the element concerned at each grid position,
• with said X-ray intensities as values, preparing a pair of identical two-dimensional arrays wherein measurement positions are arranged in a matrix, and thus preparing primary and secondary mapping data,
• converting the shape and size of said primary beam into the size of the mapping data and preparing a two-dimensional beam template of a rectangular form including the cross sectional area of said primary beam, in said beam template portions irradiated with primary beam being "1" and portions not irradiated being "0",
• determining the intensity of the background of said element concerned from intensity distribution of said primary mapping data to use said intensity as a threshold value for detection of said element concerned;
• and
• at the positions where said X-ray intensity of said primary mapping data is below the threshold value, overlaying said beam template on said primary mapping data and replacing with "0" those values in said secondary mapping data that are overlaid with "1" portions of said beam template and performing the replacement over all the measured points,
• whereby the boundary of the element concerned can be detected on the secondary mapping data in a resolution finer than the size of the primary beam.