Compensation of motion error in a high accuracy AFM

An atomic force microscope (AFM) system is used for large-area measurement with a spiral scanning strategy, which is composed of an air slide, an air spindle and a probe unit. The motion error which is brought from the air slide and the air spindle will increase with the increasing of the measurement area. Then the measurement accuracy will decrease. In order to achieve a high speed and high accuracy measurement, the probe scans along X-direction with constant height mode driven by the air slide, and at the same time, based on the change way of the motion error, it moves along Z-direction conducted by piezoactuator. According to the above method of error compensation, the profile measurement experiment of a micro-structured surface has been carried out. The experimental result shows that this method is effective for eliminating motion error, and it can achieve high speed and precision measurement of micro-structured surface.