Patents Represented by Law Firm Armstrong, Westerman, Harttori, McLeland & Naughton
  • Integrated SPM sensor having a photodetector mounted on a probe on a free end of a supported cantilever
    Patent number: 5923033
    Abstract: An integrated SPM sensor including a cantilever having a probe on its free end, a supporting base for supporting the cantilever on its fixed end, and signal lines for conducting a signal picked up by the probe. The probe is a photodetector element constructed of any of a junction gate-type photo FET, a Schottky gate-type photo FET, an MOS-type photodiode and a Schottky-type photodiode. The integrated SPM sensor substantially lowers noise due to thermally excited dark current and easily detects weak incident light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 13, 1999
    Assignee: Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Michio Takayama, Kazuya Matsumoto, Yoshitaka Kamiya, Mamoru Hasegawa