The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 1995
Filed:
Nov. 05, 1993
Virgil B Elings, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
John A Gurley, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Digital Instruments, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Abstract
A microscope of the scanning probe variety. This device circumvents one of the serious problems of prior art scanning probe microscopes, i.e. that the probe is always near or on the surface of the object being scanned, creating the danger of damaging the probe on the surface especially on large scans or at high scan speeds. The microscope of this invention jumps the probe over the surface, causing the probe to be near or on the surface during only a very limited portion of the scan and therefore able to scan quickly over rough surfaces without undue damage to the probe or surface. Both scanning tunneling microscopes and atomic force microscopes employing the invention are disclosed. The scanning tunneling microscope is shown with both digital and analog control of the movement of the probe.