Patents Assigned to Asylum Research Corporation
-
Publication number: 20150013037Abstract: Apparatus and techniques for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work are described. Similar apparatus and techniques for extracting information from piezoelectric, polymer and other materials using contact resonance with multiple excitation signals are also described.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 25, 2014Publication date: January 8, 2015Applicant: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Anil Gannepalli
-
Patent number: 8763475Abstract: A technique for actively damping internal vibrations in a scanning probe microscope is disclosed. The excitation of various mechanical movements, including resonances, in the mechanical assembly of an SPM can adversely effect its performance, especially for high speed applications. An actuator is used to compensate for the movements. The actuator may operate in only the z direction, or may operate in other directions. The actuator(s) may be located at positions of antinodes.Type: GrantFiled: November 5, 2012Date of Patent: July 1, 2014Assignee: Oxford Instruments Asylum Research CorporationInventor: Roger Proksch
-
Publication number: 20130340126Abstract: An apparatus and technique for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work is described.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 28, 2013Publication date: December 19, 2013Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventor: Roger B. Proksch
-
Patent number: 8555711Abstract: Apparatus and techniques for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work are described. Similar apparatus and techniques for extracting information using contact resonance with multiple excitation signals are also described.Type: GrantFiled: September 23, 2011Date of Patent: October 15, 2013Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Roger C. Callahan
-
Publication number: 20130117895Abstract: The imaging mode presented here combines the features and benefits of amplitude modulated (AM) atomic force microscopy (AFM), sometimes called AC mode AFM, with frequency modulated (FM) AFM. In AM-FM imaging, the topographic feedback from the first resonant drive frequency operates in AM mode while the second resonant drive frequency operates in FM mode and is adjusted to keep the phase at 90 degrees, on resonance. With this approach, frequency feedback on the second resonant mode and topographic feedback on the first are decoupled, allowing much more stable, robust operation.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 29, 2012Publication date: May 9, 2013Applicant: Asylum Research CorporationInventor: Asylum Research Corporation
-
Publication number: 20130061356Abstract: A technique for actively damping internal vibrations in a scanning probe microscope is disclosed. The excitation of various mechanical movements, including resonances, in the mechanical assembly of an SPM can adversely effect its performance, especially for high speed applications. An actuator is used to compensate for the movements. The actuator may operate in only the z direction, or may operate in other directions. The actuator(s) may be located at positions of antinodes.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 5, 2012Publication date: March 7, 2013Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventor: Roger Proksch
-
Patent number: 8370960Abstract: A modular AFM/SPM which provides faster measurements, in part through the use of smaller probes, of smaller forces and movements, free of noise artifacts, that the old generations of these devices have increasingly been unable to provide. The modular AFM/SPM includes a chassis, the foundation on which the modules of the instrument are supported; a view module providing the optics for viewing the sample and the probe; a head module providing the components for the optical lever arrangement and for steering and focusing those components; a scanner module providing the XYZ translation stage that actuates the sample in those dimensions and the engage mechanism; a isolation module that encloses the chassis and provides acoustic and/or thermal isolation for the instrument and an electronics module which, together with the separate controller, provide the electronics for acquiring and processing images and controlling the other functions of the instrument.Type: GrantFiled: October 14, 2009Date of Patent: February 5, 2013Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Mario Viani, Jason Cleveland, Maarten Rutgers, Matthew Klonowski, Daren Walters, James Hodgson, Jonathan Hensel, Paul Costales, Anil Gannepalli
-
Publication number: 20130024162Abstract: Techniques for coupling with devices that convert displacements into differential voltages and improve the sensitivity of such devices. The disclosed system improves the accuracy and resolution of a transducers such as an LVDT by converting certain parts of the circuit to a digital circuit. One embodiment uses a processor, although other digital processing circuitry may also be used.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 18, 2012Publication date: January 24, 2013Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventors: Dan Bocek, Roger Proksch
-
Patent number: 8302456Abstract: A technique for actively damping internal vibrations in a scanning probe microscope is disclosed. The excitation of various mechanical movements, including resonances, in the mechanical assembly of an SPM can adversely effect its performance, especially for high speed applications. An actuator is used to compensate for the movements. The actuator may operate in only the z direction, or may operate in other directions. The actuator(s) may be located at positions of antinodes.Type: GrantFiled: February 22, 2007Date of Patent: November 6, 2012Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventor: Roger Proksch
-
Publication number: 20120272411Abstract: A new type of indenter is described. This device combines certain sensing and structural elements of atomic force microscopy with a module designed for the use of indentation probes, conventional diamond and otherwise, as well as unconventional designs, to produce high resolution and otherwise superior indentation measurements.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2012Publication date: October 25, 2012Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventors: Flavio Alejandro Bonilla, Roger Proksch, Jason Cleveland, Tim Sauter
-
Publication number: 20120266336Abstract: A controller for cantilever-based instruments, including atomic force microscopes, molecular force probe instruments, high-resolution profilometers and chemical or biological sensing probes. The controller samples the output of the photo-detector commonly used to detect cantilever deflection in these instruments with a very fast analog/digital converter (ADC). The resulting digitized representation of the output signal is then processed with field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors without making use of analog electronics. Analog signal processing is inherently noisy while digital calculations are inherently “perfect” in that they do not add any random noise to the measured signal. Processing by field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors maximizes the flexibility of the controller because it can be varied through programming means, without modification of the controller hardware.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2012Publication date: October 18, 2012Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventors: Roger Proksch, Jason Cleveland, Dan Bocek, Todd Day, Mario B. Viani, Clint Callahan
-
Patent number: 8269485Abstract: Techniques for coupling with devices that convert displacements into differential voltages and improve the sensitivity of such devices. The disclosed system improves the accuracy and resolution of a transducers such as an LVDT by converting certain parts of the circuit to a digital circuit. One embodiment uses a processor, although other digital processing circuitry may also be used.Type: GrantFiled: May 27, 2003Date of Patent: September 18, 2012Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Dan Bocek, Roger Proksch
-
Publication number: 20120216322Abstract: A digital system for controlling the quality factor in a resonant device. The resonant device can be a a device that includes a cantilever within its system, such as an atomic force microscope. The quality factor can be digitally controlled to avoid noise effect in the analog components. A direct digital synthesizer implemented in a way that provides access to the output of the phase accumulator. That output is a number which usually drives a lookup table to produce a cosine or sine output wave. The output wave is created, but the number is also adjusted to form a second number that drives a second lookup table to create an adjustment factor to adjust the output from the cosine table. The adjusted digital signal than drives a DA converter which produces an output drive for the cantilever.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 25, 2011Publication date: August 23, 2012Applicant: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Dan Bocek, Jason Cleveland
-
Patent number: 8205488Abstract: A controller for cantilever-based instruments, including atomic force microscopes, molecular force probe instruments, high-resolution profilometers and chemical or biological sensing probes. The controller samples the output of the photo-detector commonly used to detect cantilever deflection in these instruments with a very fast analog/digital converter (ADC). The resulting digitized representation of the output signal is then processed with field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors without making use of analog electronics. Analog signal processing is inherently noisy while digital calculations are inherently “perfect” in that they do not add any random noise to the measured signal. Processing by field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors maximizes the flexibility of the controller because it can be varied through programming means, without modification of the controller hardware.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2010Date of Patent: June 26, 2012Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Jason Cleveland, Dan Bocek, Todd Day, Mario B. Viani, Clint Callahan
-
Patent number: 8196458Abstract: A new type of indenter is described. This device combines certain sensing and structural elements of atomic force microscopy with a module designed for the use of indentation probes, conventional diamond and otherwise, as well as unconventional designs, to produce high resolution and otherwise superior indentation measurements.Type: GrantFiled: March 23, 2010Date of Patent: June 12, 2012Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Flavio Alejandro Bonilla, Roger Proksch, Jason Cleveland, Tim Sauter
-
Publication number: 20120079631Abstract: Apparatus and techniques for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work are described. Similar apparatus and techniques for extracting information using contact resonance with multiple excitation signals are also described.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 23, 2011Publication date: March 29, 2012Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventors: Roger Proksch, Roger C. Callahan
-
Patent number: 8042383Abstract: A digital system for controlling the quality factor in a resonant device. The resonant device can be any mechanically driven resonant device, but more particularly can be a device that includes a cantilever within its system, such as an atomic force microscope. The quality factor can be digitally controlled to avoid noise effect in the analog components. One of the controls can use a direct digital synthesizer implemented in a way that provides access to the output of the phase accumulator. That output is a number which usually drives eight lookup table to produce a cosine or sign output wave. The output wave is created, but the number is also adjusted to form a second number of the drives a second lookup table to create an adjustment factor. The adjustment factor is used to adjusts the output from the cosine table, to create an adjusted digital signal. The adjusted digital signal than drives a DA converter which produces an output drive for the cantilever.Type: GrantFiled: June 17, 2008Date of Patent: October 25, 2011Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Dan Bocek, Jason Cleveland
-
Patent number: 8024963Abstract: Apparatus and techniques for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work are described. Similar apparatus and techniques for extracting information using contact resonance with multiple excitation signals are also described.Type: GrantFiled: June 16, 2008Date of Patent: September 27, 2011Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Roger C. Callahan
-
Publication number: 20110219479Abstract: Systems and techniques for varying a scan rate in a measurement instrument. The techniques may be used in scanning probe instruments, including atomic force microscopes (AFMs) and other scanning probe microscopes, as well as profilometers and confocal optical microscopes. This allows the selective imaging of particular regions of a sample surface for accurate measurement of critical dimensions within a relatively small data acquisition time.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 10, 2011Publication date: September 8, 2011Applicant: ASYLUM RESEARCH CORPORATIONInventors: Roger B. Proksch, Roger C. Callahan
-
Patent number: 7937991Abstract: A controller for cantilever-based instruments, including atomic force microscopes, molecular force probe instruments, high-resolution profilometers and chemical or biological sensing probes. The controller samples the output of the photo-detector commonly used to detect cantilever deflection in these instruments with a very fast analog/digital converter (ADC). The resulting digitized representation of the output signal is then processed with field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors without making use of analog electronics. Analog signal processing is inherently noisy while digital calculations are inherently “perfect” in that they do not add any random noise to the measured signal. Processing by field programmable gate arrays and digital signal processors maximizes the flexibility of the controller because it can be varied through programming means, without modification of the controller hardware.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2007Date of Patent: May 10, 2011Assignee: Asylum Research CorporationInventors: Roger Proksch, Jason Cleveland, Dan Bocek, Todd Day, Mario B. Viani, Clint Callahan