Design and Validation of a Low Cost High Speed Atomic Force Microscope
Location
CSU 202
Start Date
11-4-2017 1:05 PM
End Date
11-4-2017 2:05 PM
Student's Major
Integrated Engineering
Student's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Mentor's Name
Robert Sleezer
Mentor's Department
Integrated Engineering
Mentor's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Description
The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is an important tool for characterization at the nanoscale. They operate by rastering an atomically sharp needle attached to a flexible cantilever across a surface while using an optical lever to measure the tip sample interaction. A control loop is used to keep the tip sample interaction constant. The output of the control loop is used to determine the topography of the surface. Unfortunately, the complex optical and control systems in an AFM make them both expensive and slow. Fortunately, DVD Optical Pickup Units (OPUs) are designed to measure and compensate for wobble in DVD disks to maintain laser focus at the nanoscale with a high bandwidth. Because DVD players are high volume consumer electronics these OPUs are widely available and optimized for both cost and performance. However, interfacing with an OPU is a difficult task because the documentation available for it was scarce and, at times, inaccurate. With further research and experimentation, the authors were able to reverse engineer aspects of OPU that were poorly documented and design a circuit to power a KSS-213C OPU. Additionally, circuits were designed to collect distance data from the KSS-213C. A test structure was designed to demonstrate the capability of the KSS-213C to make nanoscale measurements. The precision of the KSS-213C was measured and is reported.
Design and Validation of a Low Cost High Speed Atomic Force Microscope
CSU 202
The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is an important tool for characterization at the nanoscale. They operate by rastering an atomically sharp needle attached to a flexible cantilever across a surface while using an optical lever to measure the tip sample interaction. A control loop is used to keep the tip sample interaction constant. The output of the control loop is used to determine the topography of the surface. Unfortunately, the complex optical and control systems in an AFM make them both expensive and slow. Fortunately, DVD Optical Pickup Units (OPUs) are designed to measure and compensate for wobble in DVD disks to maintain laser focus at the nanoscale with a high bandwidth. Because DVD players are high volume consumer electronics these OPUs are widely available and optimized for both cost and performance. However, interfacing with an OPU is a difficult task because the documentation available for it was scarce and, at times, inaccurate. With further research and experimentation, the authors were able to reverse engineer aspects of OPU that were poorly documented and design a circuit to power a KSS-213C OPU. Additionally, circuits were designed to collect distance data from the KSS-213C. A test structure was designed to demonstrate the capability of the KSS-213C to make nanoscale measurements. The precision of the KSS-213C was measured and is reported.
Recommended Citation
Ganzer, Michael and Tien Pham. "Design and Validation of a Low Cost High Speed Atomic Force Microscope." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 11, 2017.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2017/oral-session-10/1
