Fully digitally controller for cantilever-based instruments

• Main Authors: Viani, Mario, Callahan, Clint, Proksch, Roger, Bocek, Dan, Day, Todd, Cleveland, Jason
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 23.10.2018
• Subjects: APPLICATIONS OF SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES, e.g. SCANNING PROBEMICROSCOPY [SPM]; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASURING; NANOTECHNOLOGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES OR APPARATUS; SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; TESTING; TRANSPORTING

A controller for cantilever-based instruments, including atomic force microscopes, molecular force probe instruments, high-resolution profilometers and chemical or biological sensing probes. The controller samples the output of the photo-detector commonly used to detect cantilever deflection in these instruments with a very fast analog/digital converter (ADC). The resulting digitized representation of the output signal is then processed with field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors without making use of analog electronics. Analog signal processing is inherently noisy while digital calculations are inherently "perfect" in that they do not add any random noise to the measured signal. Processing by field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors maximizes the flexibility of the controller because it can be varied through programming means, without modification of the controller hardware.