Automated atomic force microscope and the operation thereof
First Claim
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1. A cantilever based measuring instrument apparatus, comprising:
- a cantilever based instrument that has a cantilever, where the cantilever is driven by a driving signal to measure a surface, and the instrument uses a feedback loop with a signal from the cantilever, said feedback loop having a controllable gain;
a computer based controller, operating to measure and produce sensitivity information about the cantilever without touching the surface, where said sensitivity information is a function of said gain in the feedback loop; and
said controller accepting a setting of desired gain, and based on said setting of desired gain, estimating parameters to drive the cantilever based instrument to measure said surface using said sensitivity information and said amount of desired gain, by using a tip of the cantilever to measure characteristics of the surface.
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Abstract
Improvements for rapidly calibrating and automatically operating a scanning probe microscope are disclosed. A central component of the SPM is the force transducer, typically a consumable cantilever element. By automatically calibrating transducer characteristics along with other instrumental parameters, scanning parameters can be rapidly and easily optimized, resulting in high-throughput, repeatable and accurate measurements. In contrast to dynamic optimization schemes, this can be accomplished before the surface is contacted, avoiding tip or sample damage from the beginning of the measurement process.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A cantilever based measuring instrument apparatus, comprising:
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a cantilever based instrument that has a cantilever, where the cantilever is driven by a driving signal to measure a surface, and the instrument uses a feedback loop with a signal from the cantilever, said feedback loop having a controllable gain; a computer based controller, operating to measure and produce sensitivity information about the cantilever without touching the surface, where said sensitivity information is a function of said gain in the feedback loop; and said controller accepting a setting of desired gain, and based on said setting of desired gain, estimating parameters to drive the cantilever based instrument to measure said surface using said sensitivity information and said amount of desired gain, by using a tip of the cantilever to measure characteristics of the surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of operating a cantilever based measuring instrument, comprising:
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using a computer for obtaining a relationship between an optical lever sensitivity of a cantilever of the cantilever based instrument, where the sensitivity depends on distances to a sample, and where said relationship is measured without touching the sample; using said relationship to determine an optical lever sensitivity value, invOLS of said cantilever; and measuring characteristics of a surface of the sample, said invOLS value, by using a tip of the cantilever to measure characteristics of the surface and by estimating parameters of gain in the measurement based on the invOLS value for the cantilever used to measure. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A cantilever based measuring instrument apparatus, comprising:
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a cantilever based instrument that has a cantilever, where the cantilever is driven by a driving signal to measure a surface, and the instrument uses a feedback loop with a signal from the cantilever, said feedback loop having a controllable gain; a computer based controller for the cantilever based instrument, said controller producing outputs that control cantilever excitation parameters, and control a gain of said feedback loop used for measuring said surface, said controller operating to measure and produce sensitivity information about the cantilever, said controller accepting a setting of desired gain, including a first value that indicates a high level of risk for instability in the feedback loop, and a second value that indicates a lower level of risk for instability in the feedback loop, and said controller using said setting of desired gain and said sensitivity information to produce said cantilever excitation parameters and a gain value, and receiving values by using a tip of the cantilever to measure characteristics of the surface to measure characteristics of the surface. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification