A New Type Of Atomic Force Microscope With Multi-scanners

Micro and nano technology has increasingly become one of the forefront of technological development in the world today, and played a major role in promoting the social progress and the development of modern science and technology. The ultra-high-resolution instrument, just like atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM), has become an important and indispensable tool in the field of nanotechnology. Especially, AFM is widely used in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, microelectronics, micro-mechanical and micro-nano technology.Currently, the majority conventional AFMs own only a single scanner and a single scan mode, thus there are insufficient in terms of performance and technical indicators. So, a new scan method with multi-scanner AFM is developed in this paper. The new AFM owns sample-scan mode with tube-piezo scanner, tip-scan mode with stack-piezo scanner, and the combined mode with piezo feedback and step motor scanner. With these scanners, the AFM is suitable not only for high resolution imaging of small sample, but also for the detection of large-sized samples.The theoretical method, system design and experimental technology of the new AFM are presented in this paper. The main research works are as follows:A new scanning method was first proposed in this paper, which can provide both the probe and/or sample scan mode. The scanning method includes three kinds of probes and/or sample scan mode, can scan samples of different size or weight, and keep the nanoscale scanning precision. The scope of the single-scan images range from several microns to tens of microns and one hundred microns, and image stitching make the millimeter range to be reality. The new AFM overcomes the limitations of conventional AFMs, and providing a new way to achieve high precision, large-scale, and multi-scan mode micro-nano-scan imaging with samples of various sizes and weight.According to the new scanning method, we have successfully developed a new multi-scanner AFM system. This system consists of three scanners, comprising tube-piezo scanner, stack-piezo scanner, and the combined mode with piezo feedback and step motor scanner. It provides at least three different scanning forms to meet the various needs of different samples. The system is running smoothly, and has good performance. It can be widely applied in the fields of micro and nanotechnology.A variety of samples were scanned by using this AFM system. The experiments included high-resolution scanning of light small samples, high-resolution scanning of samples with larger range, and wide range scanning of large samples. Also the application of experimental research is carry out. The experimental results show that the multiple scanner AFM system having a stable and reliable performance. It can realize the diversification detection of the different samples under different conditions. The system can fully meet the demand for different scans of the detection range and accuracy of the different size and quality samples in scientific research and industrial areas.