Interleave Scanning and LiftMode
Interleave Mode Description
Rev. B
MultiMode SPM Instruction Manual
219
12.2 Interleave Mode Description
Enabling
Interleave
changes the scan pattern of the tip relative to the imaged area. With Interleave
mode
disabled,
the tip scans back and forth in the fast scan direction while slowly moving in the
orthogonal direction as shown on the left of
. This is the standard scan pattern of the
NanoScope III.
Figure 12.2a
X-Y Scan Pattern
With Interleave mode enabled, the system
fi
rst performs a standard trace and retrace with the
Main
Feedback Controls
in effect. The tip moves at half the normal rate in the slow scan direction. As
shown on the right of
, an additional trace and retrace are then performed with the
Interleave Feedback Controls
enacted. The frame rate halves because twice as many scan lines are
performed for the same scan rate.
Four modes are possible for
Interleave scan
:
Interleave
,
Linear
,
Retrace Lift
and
Lift
. With
Interleave
selected, the feedback remains on during the Interleave pass with the values under
Interleave Feedback Controls
(Setpoint, Gains, etc.) in effect. In
Lift
mode, the feedback is instead
turned off, and the tip lifted off the surface and scanned at a user-selected height. Topography data
recorded during the main pass is used to keep the tip a constant distance from the surface during the
interleave trace and retrace. In
Linear
mode, the tip is lifted above the surface to the speci
fi
ed
height using the median value of the main scan line as the reference for the lift height. If there are
any features taller than the lift height you entered, the system will lift the tip over those features
rather than crashing the tip. In
Retrace Lift
the tip is on the surface during the main scan, and lifts
during the retrace scan line.
INTERLEAVE
trace and retrace
With INTERLEAVE enabled scanner executes
trace/retrace pairs, alternately performing a
MAIN pair, then an INTERLEAVED pair.
Vertical Scan speed is 1/2 normal rate with
twice the number of lines.
INTERLEAVE
ENABLED
four Main and four Interleave
scan lines shown
INTERLEAVE
DISABLED
(standard)
four scan lines
(trace/retrace pairs)
shown
slow scan
direction
fast scan
direction
MAIN trace
and retrace
