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This paper presents polymer graphite (PG) as a novel material for the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) probe. Conductive PG is a relatively modern nanocomposite material used for micro-pencil refills containing a polymer-based binding agent and graphite flakes. Its high conductivity and immunity against surface contamination, with a low price, make it seem like a highly suitable material for electrode manufacturing in general. For the tip production, three methods were developed and are further described in the paper. For the production, three commercially available polymer graphite rods were used. Each has been discussed in terms of performance within the tunneling microscope and within other potential applications.

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The design of checkers aimed at the concurrent test of analog and mixed-signal circuits is considered in this paper. These checkers can on-line test duplicated and fully differential analog circuits. The test approach is based on exploiting the inherent redundancy of these circuits which results in the use of a code for the analog signals. The analog code is monitored by the checkers. An error signal which complies with existing digital self-checking parts is generated in the case that a code fails out of the valid code space. For the verification of the analog codes, absolute tolerance margins and tolerance margins which are made relative to signal amplitude are considered. A test pattern generator for off-line testing of the checkers is proposed