© ICSPI Corp. 2007-2021
nGauge AFM User Manual 2.0
28
5.6.8.
Advanced Controls
There are multiple options available under the Advanced Controls on the Scan page.
Note:
The only advanced settings that can be safely changed during scanning are the
Proportional and Integral controls.
Parameter
Description
Default
value
Available
settings or range
Scan Mode
Switch between the normal "Area" mode
which scans a square 2D area, and "Line"
mode which scans a long 1D line. The
"Line" mode results will still be displayed
as a 2D image, even though only a single
line is being scanned repeatedly.
Area
Area, Line
Leveling
Direction
To correct for the tilt in the Y direction
(slow scan axis) of the AFM chip relative
to the sample, a hardware leveling feature
is applied. Leveling Direction switches
between adding or subtracting a tilt and is
device specific. Different types of AFM
chips may require different Leveling
Directions.
Forward
Forward, Reverse
Leveling
If the raw data of an image still contains
significant tilt in the Y direction, the
Leveling value can be increased or
decreased to compensate.
0
0 - 15
Z Coarse
The Z actuator is split into two controls:
Coarse Z and Fine Z. Fine Z has a smaller
range and is the channel that the PI
controller uses to follow the sample
topography during a scan. Coarse Z has a
large range and is simply used to coarsely
position the Z actuator so that that the
entire sample topography is in the range
of the Fine Z.
0.2
0
– 2 V
Proportional
The proportional coefficient of the PI
controller. Increasing this value increases
the response time of the controller but
increasing it too much can cause
instability in the Z actuator.
Can be safely changed during scanning.
0
– 10
