Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometer and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer Automation: Past and Future Development

As part of the Microbeam Analysis Society (MAS) symposium marking 50 years of electron microprobe analysis, this article reviews the important advances made over the decades to the automation of data collection and computerized analysis of data from the electron microprobe. Out of many innovations that contributed to the advance of microprobe automation, we have chosen to focus on a few developments that the authors feel represent the major trends in advancement of the "state of the art" of this instrumentation. After providing brief summaries of the three generations of advances in the hardware and software of automation systems, several key applications developments are described, followed by our prediction of which current developments may impact the future automation of the microprobe.