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Microscopy Controllers
Multi-purpose SPM Electronics
The ASC500 is a modular and flexible digital SPM controller which combines
state-of-the-art hardware with innovative software architecture, offering
superior performance and unprecedented variety of control concepts. It
was developed with the goal to never be the limiting factor in any scanning
probe microscopy (SPM) experiment. All desirable functions and high-end
specifications for conducting the experiment of your choice in AFM, MFM,
KPFM, PRFM, CFM, SHPM, SNOM, STM, and many more measurement
techniques are available. The ASC500 features optional closed loop
functionality fully supporting attocube’s FPS interferometric sensors.
Q control
The ASC500 provides full control over the Q factor of any driven
oscillator system by means of electronic Q control. The natural Q
factor can be varied by typically more than one order of magni-
tude in each direction. This allows to enhance the signal sensi-
tivity or to improve on scan speed, as well as to use well-known
room temperature scan parameters also for low temperature
experiments with help of Q reduction.
The ASC400 is a flexible digital confocal microscope controller, and
combines state-of-the-art hardware with innovative software concepts
to offer an unmatched variety of controlling many different confocal
microscopy applications. Scan control combined with data acquisition, and
straightforward interfacing to external devices such as e.g. a spectrometer
are just some of the convenient features.
Closed loop scan engine
The world’s first low temperature compatible closed loop scan
engine is fully integrated into the ASC500 as an upgrade option.
Based on our award winning fiber interferometer FPSensor, the
lateral resolution is about 1 nm. This unique concept provides
Scan engine
not only compensation of the piezo-inherent scan non-lineari-
ties, but also allows for convenient sample navigation and fea-
ture retrieval over the full 5 mm x 5mm.
Generic ADCs & DACs Phase locked loop
Multiple generic digital/analog converter in- and outputs enable
the user to configure the microscopy controller for his particular
measurement task. On-board preamplifiers, switchable low-pass
filtering, oversampling and offset compensation, software de-
finable transfer functions and analog modulation inputs are just
some of the features. A fully digital phase locked loop is implemented into the ASC500.
It uses the high frequency inputs/outputs with 50 MHz band-
width. A high-speed lock-in demodulator and two PI control
loops are used to control the amplitude of an oscillator and to
follow any resonance shifts. The frequency resolution is below
0.2 μHz in a range of 1 kHz up to 2 MHz.
LabVIEW remote control FPGA-based electronics
A full package of LabVIEW drivers for all software functions
incorporated in the original graphical user interface (GUI) is
included at no additional cost. It allows for convenient measure-
ment automation, user-defined experiments, and an easy inte-
gration with third party instrumentation. attocube’s electronics are state-of-the-art, fully digital
FPGA-based control and sensor units, guaranteeing highest
performance. Easy-to-use firmware upgrade tools enable the
user to take advantage of software upgrades for years to come.