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:
Oct. 23, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2008
Applicant:
Jörg Rychen, Zürich, CH;
Inventor:
Jörg Rychen, Zürich, CH;
Assignee:
Specs Zürich GmbH, Zurich, CH;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01Q 10/00 (2010.01); G01Q 10/06 (2010.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
The piezo-electric actuator () to oscillate the probe of a scanning probe microscope is arranged in the feedback branch () of an analog amplifier (). A current source () is provided for feeding a defined alternating current to the input of the amplifier (). The amplifier () strives to adjust the voltage over the actuator () such that the current from the current source () flows through the actuator (). As the current through the actuator () is proportional to its deflection, this design allows to run the actuator at constant amplitude without the need of complex feedback loops.