TY - JOUR
T1 - A microchip microcontroller-based transducer controller for non-contact scanning probe microscopy with phase-locked loop, amplitude, and Q control
AU - Chandrasekhar, Venkat
N1 - Funding Information:
The author thanks Aaveg Aggarwal for help with some of the electronics, Dr. Zhifu Liu for obtaining the image in Fig. 11, and Professor Udo Schwarz and Dr. Omur Erdinc of Yale University for providing suggestions about Q control. This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, under Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER46346.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - An inexpensive yet versatile transducer controller for non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based on a PIC32 microcontroller from Microchip Technology, Inc is described. In addition to feedback control using the amplitude or phase of the signal from the non-contact transducer, the controller includes a phase-locked loop for frequency-shift feedback, as well as fixed-amplitude, quality factor (Q) control, and self-excitation modes. Apart from the input amplifiers, output buffers, and the Q-control circuit, all other functions of the controller are instantiated in software on the microchip, enabling rapid changes in operating parameters if needed. The controller communicates with a host personal computer via a simple serial connection. The controller has been tested with a quartz tuning-fork transducer but can be used with any oscillating non-contact transducer.
AB - An inexpensive yet versatile transducer controller for non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based on a PIC32 microcontroller from Microchip Technology, Inc is described. In addition to feedback control using the amplitude or phase of the signal from the non-contact transducer, the controller includes a phase-locked loop for frequency-shift feedback, as well as fixed-amplitude, quality factor (Q) control, and self-excitation modes. Apart from the input amplifiers, output buffers, and the Q-control circuit, all other functions of the controller are instantiated in software on the microchip, enabling rapid changes in operating parameters if needed. The controller communicates with a host personal computer via a simple serial connection. The controller has been tested with a quartz tuning-fork transducer but can be used with any oscillating non-contact transducer.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.5131657
DO - 10.1063/1.5131657
M3 - Article
C2 - 32113447
AN - SCOPUS:85079776864
SN - 0034-6748
VL - 91
JO - Review of Scientific Instruments
JF - Review of Scientific Instruments
IS - 2
M1 - 023705
ER -