1. A processor-implemented method of processing a trace signal to determine one or more unknown signal components of the trace signal, the unknown signal components having the same or dissimilar signal widths, the method comprising: receiving trace signal data, the trace signal data including a plurality N of data points and representing at least M signals within a bandwidth defining the trace data, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1; processing the trace signal data, separately for each of a plurality of test signal width values, to produce spectral response data including a signal location and a signal intensity value for each of one or more detected signal components of the trace signal data for each of the plurality of test signal width values; for each of the plurality of test signal width values: determining one or more detected signal component groups in the spectral response data based on the signal intensity values of the one or more detected signal components, each detected signal component group comprising one or more of the detected signal components corresponding to one or more consecutive signal locations having a non-zero, positive signal intensity value; and determining one or more signal characterization parameters for each of the one or more detected signal component groups, wherein the one or more signal characterization parameters includes at least a location of each of the one or more detected signal component groups, and wherein the location of each of the one or more detected signal component groups is determined by calculating a centroid of the locations of the one or more detected signal components making up the detected signal component group; and thereafter performing an iterative combinatorial optimization process on all or a subset of the detected signal component groups determined for all test signal width values, based on one or more of the signal characterization parameters of the one or more detected signal component groups, to determine a final set of one or more detected signal component groups having a best match relative to the trace signal data; and outputting locations, intensities and signal widths of one or more signal components of the trace signal data based on the final set of one or more detected signal component groups; wherein the performing the iterative combinatorial optimization process includes: selecting an initial set of one or more detected signal component groups; and at each iteration: i) determining a composite signal comprising the initial set of one or more detected signal component groups; ii) determining a percent fit error for the composite signal relative to the trace signal data; iii) selecting an unused detected signal component group, wherein the unused detected signal component group is a detected signal component group that has not been included in the initial set of one or more detected signal component groups during any iteration; iv) adding the unused detected signal component group to the initial set, or replacing one of the detected signal component groups in the initial set with the unused detected signal component group to form an altered set of one or more detected signal component groups; and v) determining the final set of one or more detected signal component groups by iteratively repeating steps i) through iv) using the altered set of one or more detected signal component groups as the initial set of one or more detected signal component groups until all detected signal component groups in the all or the subset of the detected signal component groups has been used in at least one iteration of step iv), wherein the final set corresponds to the altered set having the best match as determined in step ii).