A miniaturized, high frequency mechanical scanner for high speed atomic force microscope using suspension on dynamically determined points

Herfst, R.W.; Dekker, Bert; Witvoet, Gert; Crowcombe, Will; Lange, Dorus de; Sadeghian, Hamed

doi:10.1063/1.4935584

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…A speed increase in MAFM by increasing the bandwidth of the AFM's sub-modules, i.e., the mechanical stages (x, y and z), optical read-out, 20,21 controller bandwidth, approach speed and speed of positioning. 22 We have experimentally demonstrated such a high-speed MAFM instrument 19 and a mini positioning unit (PU) capable of positioning each MAFM instrument very quickly and accurately. 23 2) Sufficient miniaturization of the AFM instrument to operate many such instruments in parallel.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…We recently developed such an MAFM instrument with a size of approximately 70×19×45 mm 3 to be implemented in the parallel AFM instrument. 19,22 A schematic illustration of the MAFM instrument is shown in Figure 7. The MAFM instrument has the following proven performance specifications.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The dynamics of the vertical z scanning stage are made insensitive to the surrounding parasitic forces by suspending the z scanning stage at specific dynamically determined points. 22 The dynamically determined points are the locations where the deformation of the stage is zero. They referred to as stationary points because only rotation (but not translation) can occur at these points.…”

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confidence: 99%

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High-throughput atomic force microscopes operating in parallel

Sadeghian

Herfst

Dekker

et al. 2017

Review of Scientific Instruments

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Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an essential nanoinstrument technique for several applications such as cell biology and nanoelectronics metrology and inspection. The need for statistically significant sample sizes means that data collection can be an extremely lengthy process in AFM. The use of a single AFM instrument is known for its very low speed and not being suitable for scanning large areas, resulting in a very-low-throughput measurement. We address this challenge by parallelizing AFM instruments. The parallelization is achieved by miniaturizing the AFM instrument and operating many of them simultaneously. This instrument has the advantages that each miniaturized AFM can be operated independently and that the advances in the field of AFM, both in terms of speed and imaging modalities, can be implemented more easily. Moreover, a parallel AFM instrument also allows one to measure several physical parameters simultaneously; while one instrument measures nano-scale topography, another instrument can measure mechanical, electrical, or thermal properties, making it a lab-on-an-instrument. In this paper, a proof of principle of such a parallel AFM instrument has been demonstrated by analyzing the topography of large samples such as semiconductor wafers. This nanoinstrument provides new research opportunities in the nanometrology of wafers and nanolithography masks by enabling real die-to-die and wafer-level measurements and in cell biology by measuring the nano-scale properties of a large number of cells.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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High-throughput atomic force microscopes operating in parallel

Sadeghian

Herfst

Dekker

et al. 2017

Review of Scientific Instruments

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“…Therefore, increasing the imaging speed necessitates increasing the bandwidth of every single component as well as optimization of the coupled system. 20 To enhance the speed of the AFM, many researchers have studied, designed, and characterized a highbandwidth apparatus, 2,7,10,19,20,24,29 which has led to the improvement of high speed AFMs. Thanks to the advances in precision engineering and fabrication technologies, the high speed AFMs are fast enough, for example, to capture video-rate information from biological processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chaos: The speed limiting phenomenon in dynamic atomic force microscopy

Janbahan

Alijani

Marnani

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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This paper investigates the closed-loop dynamics of the Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy using a new mathematical model based on the averaging method in Cartesian coordinates. Experimental and numerical observations show that the emergence of chaos in conventional tapping mode AFM strictly limits the imaging speed. We show that, if the controller of AFM is tuned to be faster than a certain threshold, the closed-loop system exhibits a chaotic behavior. The presence of chaos in the closed-loop dynamics is confirmed via bifurcation diagrams, Poincar e sections, and Lyapunov exponents. Unlike the previously detected chaos due to attractive forces in the AFM, which can be circumvented via simple changes in operation parameters, this newly identified chaos is seemingly inevitable and imposes an upper limit for the closed-loop bandwidth of the AFM.

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“…The instrument for this procedure is specifically designed for use in the recently developed parallel AFM. 2,7,16 The automatic cantilever exchange and alignment instrument is capable of exchanging 22 cantilevers in parallel in only 6 seconds and includes OBD alignment for a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). No intermediate holder is used, maximizing the performance of the z-scanner and rendering the method compatible with any type of AFM cantilever.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Cantilever Exchange and Optical Alignment for High-Throughput Parallel Atomic Force Microscopy

Sadeghian

Bijnagte

Herfst

et al. 2017

IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron.

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In atomic force microscopy (AFM), the exchange and alignment of the AFM cantilever with respect to the optical beam and position-sensitive detector (PSD) are often performed manually. This process is tedious and time-consuming and sometimes damages the cantilever or tip. To increase the throughput of AFM in industrial applications, the ability to automatically exchange and align the cantilever in a very short time with sufficient accuracy is required. In this paper, we present the development of an automated cantilever exchange and optical alignment instrument.We present an experimental proof of principle by exchanging various types of AFM cantilevers in 6 seconds with an accuracy better than 2 µm. The exchange and alignment unit is miniaturized to allow for integration in a parallel AFM. The reliability of the demonstrator has also been evaluated. Ten thousand continuous exchange and alignment cycles were performed without failure. The automated exchange and alignment of the AFM cantilever overcome a large hurdle toward bringing AFM into high-volume manufacturing and industrial applications.

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A miniaturized, high frequency mechanical scanner for high speed atomic force microscope using suspension on dynamically determined points

Cited by 19 publications

References 20 publications

High-throughput atomic force microscopes operating in parallel

High-throughput atomic force microscopes operating in parallel

Chaos: The speed limiting phenomenon in dynamic atomic force microscopy

Automated Cantilever Exchange and Optical Alignment for High-Throughput Parallel Atomic Force Microscopy

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