Microbeam analysis — EMSA/MAS standard file format for spectral-data exchange

ISO 22029:2012 presents a simple format for the exchange of digital spectral data that has been designated as an EMSA/MAS standard. This format is readable by both humans and computers and is suitable for transmission through various electronic networks, the phone system (with modems) or on physical computer storage devices (such as removable media). The format is not tied to any one computer, programming language or computer operating system. The adoption of a standard format would enable different laboratories to freely exchange spectral data, and would help to standardize data analysis software. If equipment manufacturers were to support a common format, the microscopy and microanalysis community would avoid duplicated effort in writing data analysis software.

Analyse par microfaisceaux — Format de fichier standard EMSA/MAS pour échange de données spectrométriques

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Withdrawn
Publication Date
02-Sep-2012
Current Stage
9599 - Withdrawal of International Standard
Completion Date
03-Oct-2022
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INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 22029
Second edition
2012-09-15
Microbeam analysis — EMSA/MAS
standard file format for spectral-
data exchange
Analyse par microfaisceaux — Format de fichier standard EMSA/MAS
pour échange de données spectrométriques
Reference number
ISO 22029:2012(E)
©
ISO 2012

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ISO 22029:2012(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO 2012
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ii © ISO 2012 – All rights reserved

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ISO 22029:2012(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 General considerations . 1
3 Format description. 2
3.1 General . 2
3.2 Required keywords . 3
3.3 Spectral data. 4
3.4 Optional keywords . 5
3.5 Ending a file . 8
4 Example of a data file in the EMSA/MAS spectral format . 8
Bibliography .10
© ISO 2012 – All rights reserved iii

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ISO 22029:2012(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting.
Publication as an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies
casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO 22029 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 202, Microbeam analysis.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 22029:2003), which has been
technically revised.
iv © ISO 2012 – All rights reserved

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ISO 22029:2012(E)
Introduction
The original EMSA/MAS Standard File Format for Spectral Data Exchange was published in October
1991. Since then, advances in both microbeam analysis techniques and in PC technology have meant
that this original standard is not fully able to meet modern requirements. The members of ISO/TC 202
(the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee for Microbeam Analysis)
propose this updated version. Every effort has been made to only make those changes that improve or
update the applicability of the standard, while minimizing incompatibility with the original version.
The remit of TC 202 does not include surface analysis techniques, which are addressed by TC 201, and
so references to these techniques have been removed from the original standard where necessary. The
original document also included examples of coding and telecommunications protocols. Since these are
now largely outdated, and not integral to the formatting of the data, these have also been removed.
It is noted that one of the originating societies (EMSA) has modified its name since the original document
was published. The society is now officially known as the “Microscopy Society of America”, or MSA, the
term “Electron” having been dropped to more fully indicate the work and interest of the membership of
the society in all forms of microscopy.
© ISO 2012 – All rights reserved v

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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 22029:2012(E)
Microbeam analysis — EMSA/MAS standard file format for
spectral-data exchange
1 Scope
This International Standard presents a simple format for the exchange of digital spectral data that has
been designated as an EMSA/MAS standard. This format is readable by both humans and computers
and is suitable for transmission through various electronic networks, the phone system (with modems)
or on physical computer storage devices (such as removable media). The format is not tied to any one
computer, programming language or computer operating system. The adoption of a standard format
would enable different laboratories to freely exchange spectral data, and would help to standardize data
analysis software. If equipment manufacturers were to support a common format, the microscopy and
microanalysis community would avoid duplicated effort in writing data analysis software.
2 General considerations
[1],[2],[3],[4]
The virtues of a single standard data format have been admirably related by various authors .
It would often be convenient, after visiting another laboratory to use a different type of microanalytical
spectrometer, to be able to return to one’s own laboratory to analyse the data, or for a laboratory to be
able to send a spectrum to another group at another location for analysis on their computer. A common
format would also enable test spectra to be transported between data acquisition systems, in order to
compare different data analysis routines, and would give users greater choice of analysis procedure,
based on commercial or public-domain software.
Obviously, an ideal solution would be for the manufacturers to represent data in a standard format,
but they are unlikely to agree on this without some direction from their customers (the microanalysis
community). Therefore it is highly desirable for EMSA and MAS to proceed with the adoption of a
standard format. Such a format does not preclude any research group or manufacturer from having
their own, possibly proprietary, format. Spectral data can be stored internally in any format, as long as
there is an option to convert it to the external standard (and vice versa) for the purposes of exchange.
We believe that a standard format should possess the following attributes:
a) It should be capable of representing the data exactly (without altering the scientific content).
b) The format should be simple and easy to use.
c) It must NOT be tied to any particular computer, programming language or operating system. It
should work on a large number of computers of all sizes, although we cannot guarantee that it will
work on all possible computers.
d) The format should be both human and machine (computer) readable.
e) It should be compatible with existing electronic communication networks and with the phone
system (using modems). Future networks will likely retain compatibility with these.
f) The format should support spectra of interest to the microanalysis community (such as XEDS, EELS,
AES) and should be flexible enough to accommodate future data sets not yet specified.
g) Each file should contain enough information to uniquely identify the type and origin of the spectral
data and to reconstruct its significance.
h) Where possible, the format should be compatible with various commercial data plotting or analysis
programs (i.e. spreadsheets, or graphical-analysis packages).
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ISO 22029:2012(E)
i) The proposed format need not be the most efficient storage mechanism. Its primary goals, stated
above, will generally prevent storage efficiency. If anything, this format will err on the side of
simplicity and ease of use.
The format originally employed by the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Public Domain Library
[1] [5]
(EMMPDL) at Argonne has the virtue of simplicity, but is too rigid for general use. A recent revision
corrected some inadequacies, but a more serious re-examination is in order. The format proposed by a
[3],[4]
previous EMSA task force addresses many of the problems, but is thought by some microscopists to
[6]
be too complicated for everyday use. The VAMAS format, whose description runs to 60 pages, is also
too complex for our perceived purpose. A format, named JCAMP-DX, used by the infrared-spectroscopy
[2]
community is specific and detailed, but is somewhat off target for the spectroscopies of interest to
our community.
The format proposed here follows JCAMP-DX in many ways, but is less complicated and has features
tailored to X-ray, energy-loss and Auger spectroscopies. We circulated a preliminary version of this
proposal to several manufacturers of XEDS systems and have received back comments and suggestions,
many of which have been incorporated into this document.
The companion problem of a standard format for digital-image storage is similar to that of spectral data,
but is sufficiently different to warrant its own standard. Whereas most spectra are sufficiently compact
that they can be stored in a human-readable form, image data are usually so extensive as to require
storage of “raw” binary numbers. There exist formats for image storage that are in widespread use. One
of these (probably TIFF) should be endorsed by EMSA and MAS, allowing the microanalysis community
to take advantage of the large amount of commercial and public-domain software already available.
3 Format description
3.1 General
The general structure of the data file format can be summarized as a simple sequential text file. It begins
with a series of header lines which serve to define the characteristics of the spectrum. These header
lines are identified by unique keyword fields which occupy the first 15 positions of each line, followed
by a data field. These are described in detail below. After the header lines, a keyword indicates the start
of data, and the data then follow on successive lines in a manner which is defined explicitly within the
header. Finally, after all the data are presented, an end-of-data keyword indicates that the data set is
complete. This is diagrammatically illustrated below:
Header lines
*
*
Successive lines beginning with EMSA/MAS-defined keywords, some of which are required and some
are optional
*
*
Start-of-data keyword
*
*
Experimental data
*
*
End-of-data keyword
In general, each line of the file either contains a keyword and its associated value or spectral data. All
header lines are readily identified as they each begin with “#” in the first character field or column.
This symbol demarks the start of a 13 character keyword field, providing descriptive information about
the data followed by an associated value. EMSA/MAS-defined keywords (whose definition may be
changed only by EMSA/MAS) begin with a single # and occupy the first 13 columns (characters) of each
header line. The keyword itself consists of at most 12 characters, which directly follow the #. Shorter
2 © ISO 2012 – All rights reserved

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ISO 22029:2012(E)
keywords may be employed, and any remaining spaces following the defined keyword may be filled
with descriptive text such as unit designation for ease of legibility when the file is printed (see example
in Table 1). If a position in the keyword field is not used, it must be filled with a space character. The
keywords are not case-sensitive, so that #Xunits is interpreted as being the same as #XUNITS.
The 14th and 15th character positions (columns) in each header line are occupied by keyword/value
field separators, which consist of a colon followed by a space. The value associated with each keyword
starts in column 16 and may be either textual or numeric as defined by the keyword. Each line of the
file may contain no more than 79 characters (for compatibility with the largest number of computers
and computer networks, and for general legibility on standard-width CRT screens). Since the keyword
and its separator occupies the first 15 positions, this means that all remaining information following
the keyword is limited to a maximum of 64 (= 79 − 15) character positions. The end-of-line indicator is
a carriage return/linefeed combination ().
The only characters allowed in the file, except where explicitly stated, are the space (ASCII character
32), carriage return (ASCII character 13) and linefeed (ASCII character 10) characters, plus the printable
ASCII character set given below:
!”#$%&’()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>? @ (ASCII characters 33 - 64)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (ASCII characters 65 - 90)
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (ASCII characters 97 - 122)
[\] ^_`{|}~ (ASCII characters 91 - 96, ASCII 123 - 126)
Horizontal TAB characters are NOT permitted in this file format as a substitute for spaces or commas.
Examples of keywords, separators and data can be found in Table 1, and are further detailed below. The
file should be named using the extension .TXT, .EMSA or .MSA.
3.2 Required keywords
The following keywords are required and must appear at the beginning of the file, in the order specified
below. Although some of these may appear arbitrary, it is
...

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