Ch. 1. System Overview Sec. 1.1. Basic Cypher SPM Hardware
position the laser spot onto the cantilever. The objective lens attached to the head has two important
functions: it focuses the laser light onto the cantilever and works with the camera to create an optical
view of the sample. To learn more about the chassis and its options, please refer to Part IV on page 181.
Camera The camera (also called the “view module”) is a user changeable module that provides a top
down optical view of the cantilever and sample. It is comprised of a tube lens, Koehler illumination
with an LED source, and a digital camera. The camera module uses the objective lens in the head to
create the optical view. The standard camera module has a bright field reflected light topology and has
a 690µm by 920µm field of view with sub-micron resolution. Depending on the application, the view
module can be swapped by the user in about 10 minutes, but requires Allen wrenches to complete.
Scanner The primary function of the scanner is to move the sample relative to the cantilever during
imaging and other measurements such as force curves. There are various scanner modules which excel
at various tasks. The Cypher scanners are “sample scanners”, which means that relative to the room
that the microscope is sitting in, the cantilever is stationary and the sample moves. The scanner is a
modular unit that can be interchanged by the user depending on the application, although at present
there is only a single scanner available. Thus far the scanner modules are based on a flexure design that
uses piezoelectric stacks to move the sample up to 30µm in XY and 5µm in Z. The secondary function
of the scanner is to provide motorized course positioning of the cantilever relative to the sample in
the Z-axis. The cantilever holder is a component of the scanner that physically holds the cantilever
during imaging. There are different cantilever holders for air and liquid operations, and there are also
application specific holders for techniques like scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), see Chapter 9
on page 103. Each scanner type has its own family of cantilever holders and other accessories. The
available scanner modules are:
• The Standard scanner, described in Part II on page 12.
• The Environmental scanner, described Part III on page 113.
Backpack The backpack is located on the backside of the enclosure and houses a very powerful set of
digital and analog electronics that extend the functionality of the ARC2. Like the ARC2, the backpack
has ADCs, DACs, BNC connections, and a CrossPoint switch. .
QWhy is there both a backpack and a controller? Isn’t the backpack redundant since there is
already a controller?
AIn a typical AFM design, most of the electronics housed in the Cypher backpack would be
located in the controller. The backpack, however, moves these electronics closer to the micro-
scope; Cypher is able to achieve very low noise levels in part because of the proximity between
some of its electronics and the actual microscope. Keeping these low noise electronics external
to the enclosure balances noise performance with the management of the heat generated by
electronics.
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