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. 05, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1999
Jeffrey R. Elings, Santa Barbara, CA (US);
Veeco Instruments Inc., Plainview, NY (US);
Abstract
A high degree of measurement reproducibility is assured for the life of the tip of a probe-based instrument such as an atomic force microscope (AFM) by periodically operating the instrument in a tip cleaning mode to remove contaminants from the tip. The instrument is operated to interrupt the scanning operation and cause the probe to interact with the cleaning medium so as to remove contaminants from at least the pointed end portion of the tip. Tip cleaning may be achieved, for example, by ramming the tip vertically into the sample itself or into another cleaning medium located adjacent the sample. Alternatively, the tip can be moved laterally over the sample, a sticky material, a brush-like material, a ribbed material, or another material having surface characteristics that remove contaminants from the tip.