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:
Mar. 25, 1997
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1995
Applicant:
Inventor:
David J Ray, Agoura Hills, CA (US);
Assignee:
Quesant Instrument Corporation, Agoura Hills, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01J / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
250307 ; 250306 ; 73105 ;
Abstract
A method for initially positioning the scanning probe of a scanning probe microscope includes the steps of initially using fine position control to reduce the distance between probe and sample and, if the sample surface is not encountered, reversing the direction of the fine position control to an intermediate position and then using a coarse control in predetermined increments to narrow the distance between the probe and the sample. The fine control is again used and if the sample surface is not encountered, the steps are repeated until the surface is encountered so that the scanning operation can commence.