Guerrero-Felix Jesus Gerardo, Lopez-Miras Javier, Rodriguez-Valverde Miguel Angel, Moraila-Martinez Carmen Lucia, Fernandez-Rodriguez Miguel Angel
Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Faculty of Biology, Autonomous University of Sinaloa, 80010 Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.
HardwareX. 2023 Jun 29;15:e00447. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00447. eCollection 2023 Sep.
The Atomic Force Microscopy is a very versatile technique that allows to characterize surfaces by acquiring topographies with sub-nanometer resolution. This technique often overcomes the problems and capabilities of electron microscopy when characterizing few nanometers thin coatings over solid substrates. They are expensive, in the half million dollar range for standard units, and therefore it is often difficult to upgrade to new units with improved characteristics. One of these improvements, motorization and automation of the measurements is very interesting to sample different parts of a substrate in an unattended way. Here we report a low cost upgrade under 60 $ to a Dimension 3000 AFM based on a control unit using an Arduino Leonardo. It enables to acquire dozens or hundreds of images automatically by mimicking keyboard shortcuts and interfacing the AFM PCI card.
原子力显微镜是一种非常通用的技术，它能够通过获取具有亚纳米分辨率的表面形貌来表征表面。在表征固体基板上几纳米厚的涂层时，该技术常常能克服电子显微镜存在的问题并具备其功能。它们价格昂贵，标准设备售价在五十万美元左右，因此通常很难升级到具有改进特性的新设备。其中一项改进，即测量的电动化和自动化，对于以无人值守方式对基板的不同部分进行采样非常有意义。在此，我们报告一种基于使用Arduino Leonardo控制单元的、成本低于60美元的对Dimension 3000原子力显微镜的低成本升级方案。它能够通过模拟键盘快捷键并连接原子力显微镜PCI卡来自动获取数十张或数百张图像。
