Patent ID: 8205488

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a signal from a cantilever of an atomic force microscope into a digital circuit and carrying out at least one digital operation in said digital circuit, where said digital circuit includes both a digital signal processor DSP, and a field programmable gate array, each of said digital signal processor and said field programmable gate array carrying out digital operations on the signal from the cantilever; carrying out a first set of digital tasks to process the signal from the cantilever in the digital signal processor DSP, which first set of digital tasks require reprogramming the digital signal processor at specified intervals; carrying out a second set of digital tasks to process the signal from the cantilever in the field programmable gate array, which second set of digital tasks, which do not require re-programming; and based on said first and second sets of digital tasks, sending at least a position correcting signal from the digital circuit to the cantilever.