MEMS based Atomic Force Microscope shrinks to Dime-sized Device and with mass production could make atomic force microscopes affordable for high school and home labs
by noreply@blogger.com (brian wang) from NextBigFuture.com on (#2FWVK)
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have created an atomic force microscope on a chip, dramatically shrinking the size - and, hopefully, the price tag - of a high-tech device commonly used to characterize material properties.
"A standard atomic force microscope is a large, bulky instrument, with multiple control loops, electronics and amplifiers," said Dr. Reza Moheimani, professor of mechanical engineering at UT Dallas. "We have managed to miniaturize all of the electromechanical components down onto a single small chip."
An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a scientific tool that is used to create detailed three-dimensional images of the surfaces of materials, down to the nanometer scale - that's roughly on the scale of individual molecules.
The basic AFM design consists of a tiny cantilever, or arm, that has a sharp tip attached to one end. As the apparatus scans back and forth across the surface of a sample, or the sample moves under it, the interactive forces between the sample and the tip cause the cantilever to move up and down as the tip follows the contours of the surface. Those movements are then translated into an image.
A MEMS-based atomic force microscope developed by engineers at UT Dallas is about 1 square centimeter in size (top center). Here it is attached to a small printed circuit board that contains circuitry, sensors and other miniaturized components that control the movement and other aspects of the device.
IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems- On-Chip Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy: A Silicon-on-Insulator MEMS Approach
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"A standard atomic force microscope is a large, bulky instrument, with multiple control loops, electronics and amplifiers," said Dr. Reza Moheimani, professor of mechanical engineering at UT Dallas. "We have managed to miniaturize all of the electromechanical components down onto a single small chip."
An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a scientific tool that is used to create detailed three-dimensional images of the surfaces of materials, down to the nanometer scale - that's roughly on the scale of individual molecules.
The basic AFM design consists of a tiny cantilever, or arm, that has a sharp tip attached to one end. As the apparatus scans back and forth across the surface of a sample, or the sample moves under it, the interactive forces between the sample and the tip cause the cantilever to move up and down as the tip follows the contours of the surface. Those movements are then translated into an image.
A MEMS-based atomic force microscope developed by engineers at UT Dallas is about 1 square centimeter in size (top center). Here it is attached to a small printed circuit board that contains circuitry, sensors and other miniaturized components that control the movement and other aspects of the device.IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems- On-Chip Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy: A Silicon-on-Insulator MEMS Approach
Read more