Academia Sinica

Ing-Shouh Hwang

En-Te Hwu

Shao-Kang Hung

Kuang-Yuh Huang

En-Te Hu

Hong-Shi Kuo

Tien T Tsong

Wei-Min Wang

Tsu-Yi Fu

Ming-Yen Lin

Li-Chen Fu

Hartmut Illers

Hans Ulrich Danzebrink

Wei-Tse Chang

Hsien-Shun Liao

Cheng-Shing Tin

And De Hu

A piezoelectric actuating device includes a carrier, at least a piezoelectric unit, at least a linked component and a moving component. The piezoelectric unit is disposed on the carrier and includes at least a piezoelectric buzzer. The linked component is disposed corresponding to the piezoelectric unit. One end of the linked component is attached to the piezoelectric buzzer. The moving component is connected with the linked component. When the piezoelectric buzzer is actuated, it can carry the linked component to move correspondingly so as to move the moving component. The piezoelectric actuating device has the advantage of low cost and can achieve the sub-nanometer scale actuating resolution.

Piezoelectric actuating device

Disclosed is a method for fabricating a nanoscale probe. A first conductor and a second conductor are immersed into an electrolyte contained in an electrolytic tank. The first conductor and the second conductor are connected to a power source respectively. An electrolytic reaction is established when an electrical circuit is established between the first conductor and the second conductor. The second conductor is configured to output electrons. The first conductor is configured to receive electrons. Therefore, the first conductor is etched when the electrical circuit is established between the first conductor and the second conductor. A necking portion is created at the first conductor approximately near the surface of the electrolyte. A nanoscale probe is fabricated when first conductor breaks at the necking portion.

System for fabricating nanoscale probe and method thereof

An apparatus for actuating a positioning device includes a housing; a piezoelectric element connected to the housing; a driven element configured to move relative to the housing; and a flexible element connected to the piezoelectric element and configured to transfer a motion of the piezoelectric element to the driven element.

Friction-driven actuator

A linear actuator includes a housing, a rotary unit disposed in the housing, and a screw member driven by the rotary unit. The rotary unit is translatable relative to the housing when the screw member is driven by the rotary unit.

Linear actuator and linear actuating module having same

A system includes a displacement sensor, an actuator connected to the displacement sensor, and a feedback unit. The displacement sensor is configured to measure at least one of a relative position and a relative orientation between the displacement sensor and the target object. The feedback unit receives a signal from the displacement sensor related to the measured relative position or relative orientation and controls the actuator to move the displacement sensor on the basis of variations in the received signal arising due to a change in environmental conditions.

Alignment and anti-drift mechanism

A multi-axis actuating apparatus for a nano-positioning apparatus includes a movable element attached to a sample platform, a plurality of driving elements, and a plurality of actuators. The driving elements frictionally engage the movable element and are configured to selectively move the movable element along a first direction. The plurality of actuators move the plurality of driving elements when driving signals are applied to the plurality of actuators. Different driving signals may be applied to the plurality of actuators to cause different movement of the driving elements such that the movable element has different displacements in different directions along the plurality of driving elements. The movable element is titled due to the different displacements.

Multi-axis actuating apparatus

A system includes an objective lens, an imaging module, and a measurement module. The objective lens is configured to receive light emitted by a light source, focus the emitted light onto a target object, and receive light reflected by the target object. The imaging module is configured to receive a first portion of the reflected light. The measurement module is configured to receive a second portion of the reflected light and includes a photo detector and an astigmatic lens configured to direct the second beam onto the photo detector.

Optical imaging system

The present invention provides an optical multi-axis linear displacement measurement system and a method thereof, and the system can detect the reflected light from the top surface of the object so as to obtain multi-axis linear displacements of the object. The optical multi-axis linear displacement measurement system utilizes a non-contact optical method for obtaining multi-axis linear displacements of the object and it can perform simultaneous multi-axis linear displacement measurements. The advantages of the system and method include: high response speed (bandwidth) for dynamic measurement, simple structure, cost effective, and high sensitivity for displacement measurements.

Optical multi-axis linear displacement measurement system and a method thereof

A method for preparing an iridium tip with atomic sharpness. The method includes tapering an iridium wire to a needle shape and heating the iridium needle in an oxygen atmosphere. Also disclosed is an iridium needle having a pyramidal structure which terminates with a small number of atoms prepared by the methods.

Atomically sharp iridium tip

This invention discloses an electrochemical method for the preparation of single atom tips to replace the traditional vacuum evaporation method. The invented method for preparation of single atom tips includes the following steps: A substrate single crystal metal wire etched electrochemically to form a tip. The surface of the metal tip is cleaned. A small quantity of noble metal is plated on the apex of the tip in low concentration noble metal electrolyte. Annealing in vacuum or in inert gas ambient to diffuse the additional electroplated noble metal atoms and thus a single atom tip is formed on the surface of the substrate. The present invention also discloses the single atom tip so prepared. The single atom tip of this invention has only a very small number of atoms, usually only one atom, at its apex.

Single-atom tip and preparation method thereof

A motion actuator comprises a cylindrical movable shaft and a stage that contains an expansible/contractible device and two clamps. The expansible/contractible device can be controlled to drive the axial motion of the movable shaft, and the two clamps can be controlled to grip/release the shaft. The two clamps and the expansible/contractible device are each controlled by a bimorph structure, which comprises a cut cylindrical piezoelectric tube section in a hole enclosed by a thin wall in the stage. By sequentially activating the three piezoelectric tube sections, axial motions of the movable shaft relative to the stage in small steps are made. Each of the two clamps can be adjusted by a screw, which presses a spring structure that makes contact with the top surface of the movable shaft, so that the clamps can grip the movable shaft firmly when actuated, but not when not actuated. The flat top surface of the movable shaft is designed to inhibit the possible rotation along its axis during its axial motion. The shaft is supported by two lines at the bottom of each of the two clamps to reduce the contact area, which improves the reliability of the motion.

Motion actuator

The present invention provides a shear motion driven motion actuator. The motion actuator provides a plurality of driving modes to drive a main body, including the inertial drive mode, the friction drive mode and the scanning mode. The motion actuator comprises a base having a V-shape concave groove and a main body having a V-shape convex. A plurality of piezoelectric elements is provided on the base to drive the main body using the shearing deformation force of the piezoelectric elements. The present invention also provides motion control using a variety of driving modes to achieve stable, high resolution and linear driving of the main body along the base.

Disclosed is a novel scanning-probe type atomic force microscope wherein false deflection of the probe is reduced. The probe of the scanning-probe type atomic force microscope moves in both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction during the scanning, while the sample is kept in order to reduce the false deflection brought to the probe due to the scanning motion, two approaches are adopted. The first is to have a focused laser spot tracking an invariant point on the probe's cantilever, which moves three-dimensionally during the scanning. The second approach is to have the laser beam, which is reflected from the moving cantilever, hitting an invariant point of the PSD, when the sample is distanced from the probe and induces no deflection. A beam tracking system wherein the scanning probe is located approximately at the focal point of an objective lens and he optical system including a laser source, an optical module, a feedback module and the probe are driven by an approach mechanism to move in synchronization.

Beam tracking system for scanning-probe type atomic force microscope

A system for measurement of the height, angle and their variations of the surface of an object comprises a measurement module and an astigmatic optical path mechanism. The optical path mechanism makes a laser beam pass a lens assembly and focus on an object. The reflected light passes the lens assembly and an astigmatic lens, arriving at the photo sensor assembly, forming a light spot thereon. The translational displacements of the object are measured by the variations in shape of the light spot on the photo sensors. The angular displacements of the object are measured accordingly by the movement of the light spot on the photo sensors.

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Taipei, Taiwan

Ing-Shouh Hwang