• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.1051-1052
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• 2011

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.97-102
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• 2014

A vacuum chamber for a commercial atomic force microscope (AFM) is designed and fabricated. Only minimal modifications were made to an existing microscope in an effort to work in a vacuum environment, while most of the available AFM functionalities were kept intact. The optical alignment needed for proper AFM operations including a SLD (superluminescent diode) and a photodiode can be made externally without breaking the vacuum. A vacuum level of $5{\times}10^{-3}$ torr was achieved with a mechanical pump. An enhancement of the quality factor was observed along with a shift in the resonance frequency of a non-contact-mode cantilever in a vacuum. Topographical data of a calibration sample were also obtained in air and in a low vacuum using the non-contact mode and the results were compared.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.99-106
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• 1998

Recently, scientists introduced a new type of microscope capable of investigating nonconducting surfaces in an atomic scale, which is called AFM (Atomic Force Microscope). It was an innovative attempt to overcome the limitation of STM (Scanning Tunnelling Microscope) which has been able to obtain the image of conducting surfaces. Surfaces of samples are imaged with atomic resolution. The AFM is an imaging tool or a profiler with unprecedented 3-D resolution for various surface types. The AFM technology, however, leaves a lot of room for improvement due to its delicate and fragile probing mechanism. One of the room for improvements is gap control between probe tip and sample surface. Distance between probe tip and sample surface must be kept in below one Angtrom in order to measure the sample surface in Angstrom resolution. In this paper, AFM system modeling, experimental system identification and control scheme based on system identification are performed and finally sample surface is measured by home-built AFM with such a control scheme.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.10-13
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• 2006

In this work, imaging and study of elastic property of the living cell was performed. The motivation of this work was to seek the possibility of exploiting Young's modulus as a disease indicator using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and also to gain fundamental understanding of cell mechanics for applications in medical nanorobots of the future. L-929 fibroblast adherent cell was used as the sample. Imaging condition in cell culturing media environment was done in very low speed ($20{\mu}m/ s$) compared to that in the ambient environment. For measuring the Young's modulus of the living cell, AFM indentation method was used. From the force-distance curve obtained from the indentation experiment the Young's modulus could be derived using the Hertz model. The Young's modulus of living L-929 fibroblast cell was $1.29{\pm}0.2$ kPa.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Laser Processing Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.123-127
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• 2006

Hybrid type microscope with a Scanning Confocal Microscope (SCM) and a shear-force Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is suggested and preliminarily studied. A image of $120{\times}120{\mu}m^2$ is obtained within 1 second by SCM because scan speed of a X-axis and Y-axis are 1kHz and 1Hz, respectively. Shear-force AFM is able to correctly measure the hight and width of sample with a resolution 8nm. However, the scan speed is slow and it is difficult to distinguish a surface composed of different kinds of materials. We have carried out the measurement of total image of a sample by SCM and an exact analysis of each image by shear-force AFM.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.221-226
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• 2005

A new calibration method for exact measurement of friction force in atomic force microscope (AFM) is presented. A new conversion factor involves a contact factor affected by tip, cantilever and contact stiffness. Especially the effect of contact stiffness on the conversion factor between lateral force and lateral signal is considered. Conventional conversion factor and a new modified conversion factor were experimentally compared. Results showed that a new calibration method could minimize the effect of normal load on friction force and improve the conventional method. A new method could be applied to the specimens with different physical properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10b
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• pp.67-68
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• 2002

The properties and mechanism of silicon protuberance and groove processing by diamond tip sliding using atomic force microscope (AFM) in atmosphere were studied. To control the height of protuberance and the depth of groove, the processed height and depth depended on load and diamond tip radius were evaluated. Nanoprotuberances and grooves were fabricated on a silicon surface by approximately 100-nm-radius diamond tip sliding using an atomic force microscope in atmosphere. To clarify the mechanical and chemical properties of these parts processed, changes in the protuberance and groove profiles due to additional diamond tip sliding and potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution etching were evaluated. Processed protuberances were negligibly removed, and processed grooves were easily removed by additional diamond tip sliding. The KOH solution selectively etched the unprocessed silicon area. while the protuberances, grooves and flat surfaces processed by diamond tip sliding were negligibly etched. Three-dimensional nanofabrication is performed in this study by utilizing these mechanic-chemically processed parts as protective etching mask for KOH solution etching.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.189-195
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• 2003

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has been widely used in micro/nano-scale studies and applications for. the last few decade. In this work, wear characteristics of silicon-based AFM tip was investigated. AFM tip shape was observed using a high resolution SEM and the wear coefficient was approximately calculated based on Archard's wear equation. It was shown that the wear coefficient of silicon and silicon nitride were in the range of ${10}^{-1}$~${10}^{-3}$ and ${10}^{-3}$~${10}^{-4}$, respectively. Also, the effect of relative humidity and sliding distance on adhesion-induced tip wear was discussed. It was found that the tip wear has more severe for harder test materials. Finally, the probable wear mechanism was analyzed from the adhesive and abrasive interaction point of view.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.812-822
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• 2004

This paper shows that carbon nanotubes can be applied to a nanopipette. Nano space in atomic force microscope multi-wall carbon nanotube tips is filled with molecules and atoms with charges and then, the tips can be applied to nanopipette when the encapsulated media flow off under applying electrostatic forces. Since the nano space inside the tips can be refilled, the tips can be permanently used in ideal conditions of no chemical reaction and no mechanical deformation. Molecular dynamics simulations for nanopipette applications demonstrated the possibility of nano-lithography or single-metallofullerene-transistor array fabrication.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1778-1783
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• 2008

A compact and two-dimensional atomic force microscope (AFM) using an orthogonal sample scanner, a calibrated homodyne laser interferometer and a commercial AFM head was developed for use in the nanometrology field. The x and y position of the sample with respect to the tip are acquired by using the laser interferometer in the open-loop state, when each z data point of the AFM head is taken. The sample scanner which has a motion amplifying mechanism was designed to move a sample up to $100{\times}100{\mu}m^2$ in orthogonal way, which means less crosstalk between axes. Moreover, the rotational errors between axes are measured to ensure the accuracy of the calibrated AFM within the full scanning range. The conventional homodyne laser interferometer was used to measure the x and y displacements of the sample and compensated via an X-ray interferometer to reduce the nonlinearity of the optical interferometer. The repeatability of the calibrated AFM was measured to sub-nm within a few hundred nm scanning range.