10×10um scan for Sample 2

Posted in Uncategorized on February 9th, 2010 by kathy – Be the first to comment

Came in again Friday, 2/5.  Set up Sample 2 for scanning.  Didn’t realize the chuck for Sample 2 must have been a little thicker than the one for Sample 1, so crashed another tip.  Blew wreckage off the sample with compressed air, replaced the tip, raised the cage overhanging the stage, and started again.  Good scan, except for the 125nm something-or-other in the bottom left hand corner, and the horizontal bar blocking the bottom 250nm or so.  Saved scan, but couldn’t transfer it.  Forgot my laptop’s power cord, and my laptop ran out of power just at the wrong time.  Came back Monday and made the transfer between classes.

Time Friday 2/5:  1:45

10×10’s for Emission Correlation

Posted in Uncategorized on February 2nd, 2010 by kathy – Be the first to comment

Tuned tip.  Center frequency was 299.85.  Not as close to standard mean as I’m used to for this box of tips, so I switched it out with a new one.  Retuning.  Now 303.68 center frequency.  A little better, but still not what I’m used to.  Drive amplitude seems really low (27mV).  Had to bring the setpoint up to 2.57 to even allow for the drive amplitude to be that high without taking the frequency sweep trace up and off the screen.

Approaching surface.  Engage failed.  Approaching again.  Failed.  Again.  Engaged!

But, I’m not seeing anything.  Increased Drive amplitude to 150mV.  Still nothing.  Output signal stuck at .02, though target setpoint is 2.57.  Tried changing target setpoint to 1.5V.  Still nothing.  Raised tip. Now output signal is jumping all over the place.  Tried tuning.  Tune failed.  Reduced drive amplitude to 20mV.  Tried again.  Failed again.  Failed at 10, 30, 40.

Zeroed the setpoint.  Set drive amplitude to 100mV.  Failed again.  Tried at 200mV.  Failed again.  Tried at 300mV (the value sown in the ops manual).  Failed again.  Looking through scope I can see tip is still intact.  Re-adjusting front vertical positioning screws.  Lost laser alignment.  Realigning.  Retuning.  Failed.

Detached head.  Removed tip holder.  Returned.  Re-aligned.  Retuned.  Ahah!  Don’t know why, but the tune worked this time.  But it brought drive amplitude back down to 29.7mV.  To fit trace on screen, I had to bring the drive amplitude down to 12.8mV.  303.61kHz is the new drive frequency.Approaching surface.  Engaged.  A trace!  An image!

Capturing before having to run.  Time: 2.5 hrs.

Another try on Dec sample

Posted in Uncategorized on January 5th, 2010 by Kathy – Be the first to comment

Back in for another shot at finding holes and islands on the Dec sample.

Removed Paul’s sample and placed it in the sample box left open on the bench.  Put a piece of the InGaN sample on a new chuck, but it flew off as I placed the chuck on the stage.  Will remember next time to either tape the sample onto the chuck, or place the chuck on the stage before placing the sample on the chuck.  Selected a new piece and positioned.

Tuned.  315.76 kHz.  Offset.  Approaching with 65/45 P/I gains and 170mV Drive amplitude brought drive amp up to 350 mv.  Changed I/P gains to 0.6/0.4, set look-ahead to o.5.  Saw steps, but no pits or islands.  Moved to a different spot.  Now I don’t even see steps.  Just a perfect surface?

Thx?

After the End of Semester Crunch

Posted in Uncategorized on December 22nd, 2009 by kathy – 1 Comment

Back to the AFM. Now have a real sample of the right size. Am glad for the notes in the previous posts.

Saw new hooks in the cement base. They’re set to correct the previous off-balance problem. I guess thanks to Mike. Should now be able to set the AFM in the center of the vabration isolation apparratus. There’s also a sample chuck under the standard. That should make positioning easier for future samples.

Powered up, raised tip using the GUI, and looked through the scope. Saw slag, though. Autotune results in a center frequency of 332.97 khz.  Reread the notes from Oct and saw Loren said target amplitude should be 3v.  Changed from 1V to 3V and reran autotune.  center freq is now 333.01khz.

Reminder from Mike:  Keep look ahead at zero for these big discontinuity samples.

Removed standard and put into tgz02 box in droor.  Replaced tip, saved old one for future review/training.  Put in our Dec InGaN sample.  Had to realign laser (due to substrate thickness diff?).  Sum never made it over 2-ish.  Decided to run with it anyway just to see.  Tuned new tip.  353.01khz?  Tip specs say 400 is max, so I guess this is OK.  Offset to 352.92.

Capturing something.  Settings:  1um scan size, .565 Hz, 512 samples 440V z-limit, I/P gains .45/.65, 0.0 look ahead gain (should I change this now?), setpoint 2.18V, Drive f 352.918,khz, Drive amp 354mV, z range 10nm.  I’m not sure what to make of what I’m seeing.  Capturing now and will evaluate remotely later.  Naming convention?

DecInGaN_01_up

Leaving sample in the AFM, just lifting probe tip and I’m on my way.  Posting a sticky-note sign.

Calibration Parameters

Posted in Uncategorized on October 28th, 2009 by neweruser – Be the first to comment

Settings as they are now:

x on left, y on right:

fast sens  30.30  29.84 nm/v

fast derate 0.002510  0.02494 nm/v2

slow sens 33.70  32.40  nm/v

slow derate 0.02968  0.02918  nm/v2

xs-xf coupling 0.05747  ys-yf coupling 0.06914  nm/v2

xs-xf coup der -0.003977  ys-yf coup der  0.06062  pm/v3

xs-yf coupling  0.006069  ys-xf coupling  0.008073  nm/v2

xs-yf coup der -0.001976  ys-xf coup der0.002260  pm/v3

fast mag0 1.15  slow mag0  1.28

fast mag 1 0.450 slow mag1 0.600

fast arg 2.5 slow arg 2.5

fast cal freq 2.44 Hz  slow cal freq 4.77mHz

piezo cal 440v rounding 0.00

allow rotation allow  orthogonality 3.00 deg

Calibration Parameters

Posted in Uncategorized on October 23rd, 2009 by neweruser – Be the first to comment

Removed sample, then replaced it at 90 degrees from previous position.  Retuned.  Tip is now resonating at 333.12kHz.  Tune plot looks soft.  May have picked up something of significant mass during last use, or while sitting in non-cleanroom ambient.  Using it to scan anyway.  Will see what comes of it.  Noticed output signal is over 10V.  This seems high.

Tuning with Loren.  Usually target amplitude is 3V because that’s what DI says.  Hit autotune.  Went into manual tune window.    This tip has multiple resonances (not ideal).  Setpoint should also be 3V.  Trace should be stable, and max should meet the setpoint.  This one’s stable.  If there’s drift, try moving tip around in holder, increase drive amplitude to drive it a little harder, or just replace tip.   Want tip of trace to be 1 hashmark below top of plot.  To do this change drive amplitude.  Select drive frequency, go 3 left arrow clicks.  This will set the offset.  This keeps us from imaging at resonance, where things can look underwater.  Notice output signal is dancing around.  Select quit.  Now the output signal should be between 3.6 and 3.9V.  Now our output signal is steady at 3.8.  We’re now doing free space oscillation.  When tip is on the surface, we’re damping out the amplitude.  Want to be about 3 when on the surface.

Note, I didn’t have to take sample out at all if I wanted to change scan orientation.  Just change scan angle by 90 degrees.

Changing channel 2 to amplitude.  It’ll show us deviations of amplitude as the tip interacts with the surface.  Track controller delay time effect.  Is tip interacting with surface?  This trace will show.

Decrease scan size to 1 micron.  Start at 3Hz scan rate.  Exited interleave controls because we won’t be using them (they’re disabled anyway).

Noticed:  front gap under head is too far down.  Need to keep head level to keep components free.  Raised fron of head some.

Tails in retrace image show amplitude is too high.  Adjusted.

Tip velocity is 2X scan size times scan rate.  Start at 1 micron, then go up to 10 micron.  Start at 3 Hz, then moving to .5 brings trace and retrace back together.

Restart from the top down a few times to let the piezo settle in.

Need to check both y and x direction.  We’re swinging nearly 440 (z limit) plus or minus 220 volts in each direction) in y direction, and stepping slowly in x.  So we do need sample orientation.

Capture calibration option in the capture dropdown menu is  based on using the right standard.  Might have to tune up or reorient the standard to a more perfect 90 degrees.  Have to be close to dead on for this to work well.  Parameters are stored under microscope settings.  It’ll come up with a table of values.  May not even be able to have tip engaged when looking for this table.  Can change units (Metric to volts).  Set at max  volts: 440V (metric is a very particular number depending on this tool’s piezo material makeup – 13.4 microns here).  This number might change after calibration.

calibrate scaner.  simplifieed instructions don’t cover all parameters, but tunup may not require update of all parameters.  Need full scale calibration procedure.

analyze section of imge.   9.121 as distance for 9 nm distance.  Within error or standard itself!

PID

Posted in Uncategorized on October 21st, 2009 by neweruser – 1 Comment

Retuned.  Tip resonates at 333.08 kHz.  Scanning with scan size 10 micron without x or y offsets.  Number of samples = 512.  Zero look-ahead gain.

Parameters before, mid, and after pid optimizing.

Setpoint:  0.513V  .588  0.600

Drive Amplitude:  31.7mV  378  378

Proportional Gain:  0.700  .847  0.65

Integral Gain:  0.500  0.605   0.45

Also changed z range from 100 to 150 nm.  Changes scan rate from 1 to 0.5 Hz.  Changed scan angle to 359 degrees to try to compensate for image tilt.

Captured up scan first.  Now capturing down.  File names: tgz02up.001 and tgz02dn.001.  Oops.  Indeerrupted down scan.  Will have to redo that one later.  Have to run.

Time at AFM today: 1:15.

Tip Replacement

Posted in Uncategorized on October 19th, 2009 by neweruser – Be the first to comment

Came in, loaded tgz02 calibration sample again, optimized laser and optical sensor positions, and tuned.  Changed setpoint to lower than previous, as that seemed to work for last week’s scan of Paul’s sample with near 1 micron features.  Tip was far up, so I manually moved front two z position knobs.  Must have gone too far, because when I seleected the lowering icon to get it to make contact, it said it failed.  As I used the optical scope to see how far away we were, I saw shards.  Raised tip and retuned, but tuning failed, confirming crash.

Replaced tip.  Retuned.  Left setpoint on the tuning plot alone.  Rinsed calibration standard with IPA.  Put it back in the box.

10nm tip and Still Calibrating

Posted in Uncategorized on October 17th, 2009 by neweruser – Be the first to comment

Replacement tips and all of the calibration standards are in the droor.  Still haven’t been able to manage a real image of the standards to scale.

Beware the bungees.  Until we get some that all stretch the same length supporting the concrete platform, you’ll have to place the AFM slightly off-center to keep it from tumbling out.

First Post

Posted in Uncategorized on October 17th, 2009 by Kathy – Be the first to comment

The objective of this blog is to track AFM use history.  Should there be a future need, perhaps a calendar could be useful for tool scheduling.  Does Wordpress do interactive calendaring?  I’ll have to check into that.