Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) is a standard procedure for identifying and quantifying elemental composition of sample areas of a micron or less. The characteristic X-rays are produced when a material is bombarded with electrons in an electron beam instrument, such as a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Detection of these x-rays can be accomplished by an energy dispersive spectrometer, which is a solid state device that discriminates among X-ray energies.