P&S "Assembling and Controlling a Tuning-Fork AFM"

P&S Course Description

Invented in the 1980s in Zurich and awarded with a Kavli prize in 2016, the atomic force microscope (AFM) has permitted us to visualize surfaces at the single atom level, and to measure single molecule and cell-cell interactions, deepening our understanding of material science and biology. This is enabled by controlling micromechanical piezo actuators with nanometer precision and processing noisy signals in order to achieve meaningful data.

In order to introduce you to the capabilities of modern AFMs in biomedical sensing, you will build your own setups in groups of two. You will be introduced to an AFM’s functionality, control, and signal read-out using LabView. A tuning fork signal will be used as the feedback for the self-built AFM. In order to better understand the working principle of a tuning fork, you will also build your own frequency sweeper and analyze it with self-built low-pass filters.
After you have implemented your own setup, you will have the chance to characterize different biomedical samples on state-of-the-art setups. This data will then be analyzed using Matlab.
The focus of this P&S seminar is to enable you to transfer your theoretical knowledge into practice and at the same time get to know how electrical engineering can be used in biomedical research.

The course requires active participation during the practical sessions, a 10-15 min presentation and a short written report on the acquired results. The course will be given in English only during the Autumn Semester.

227-0085-13L Projekte & Seminare: Assembling and Controlling a Tuning-Fork AFM