Development of a force measurement system with a large punctual measurement range

Abstract

Atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are precise force measurement instruments that can be used to measure multiple surface properties, such as adhesion force, surface potential, and elasticity at the nanoscale. AFM is increasingly used in diverse fields, especially in industrial applications. However, most existing commercial AFMs provide a scanning range of less than a few 100 μm. Moreover, the size of the sample must usually be less than a few centimeters to fit the mechanical constraints of the device. In this paper, we propose a gantry-type force measurement system that can perform force curve measurements over a large range. The measurement range of the proposed device is 240 mm minus the sample width in air environments. In liquid environments, the measurement range is mainly limited by the size of the Petri dish. For instance, a measurement range of 41.5 mm can be achieved by using a Petri dish having a diameter of 85.5 mm. In the experiments, (a) surface adhesion measurements on the ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3) treated glass slides in air and (b) surface potential measurements on a mica surface in water were performed. The experimental results were consistent with the values obtained by the commercial AFMs, which demonstrated the accuracy of the proposed system.