A compact closed-loop nanomanipulation system in scanning electron microscope

Abstract

This paper presents a nanomanipulation system for operation inside scanning electron microscopes (SEM). The system is small in size, capable of being mounted onto and demounted from an SEM through the specimen exchange chamber without breaking the high vacuum of the SEM. This advance eliminates frequent opening of the high-vacuum chamber, thus, incurs less contamination to the SEM, avoids lengthy pumping, and significantly eases the exchange of endeffectors (e.g., nano probes and grippers). The system consists of two independent 3-DOF Cartesian nanomanipulators based on piezo motors and piezo actuators. High-resolution optical encoders are integrated into the nanomanipulators to provide position feedback for closed-loop control. A look-then-move control system and a contact detection algorithm are implemented for horizontal and vertical nanopositioning. The system design, system characterization details, and system performance are described.

Nanomanipulation system for scanning electron microscope

“…It should be noted that a fully functional nanomanipulation system has been built and it's currently in the final phase of design changes and modifications for commercialization. A more detailed design concepts and specifications of this nanomanipulation system has been published and described elsewhere by Zhang et al [7]. There are many new applications currently being developed using this novel nano-manipulation system.…”

Engineering manipulation at nanoscale: further functional specifications

“…In the group of 3 DOFs (Xidex, 2019;Zyvex, 2019;Saeidpourazar, 2009;Meyer and Braun, 2008;Nanomotor, 2019a;Zhang et al, 2011), the range of motion is mostly within an average of 12 mm in 3D space with a resolution in coarse mode between 50 nm to 2 m m with a refine positioning resolution of one nanometer. Better than one nanometer refining resolution is debatable, as it needs a calibration with a highly resolved instrument.…”