Patent ID: 7928409

Claim:
A method for performing at least one of alignment, stabilization and registration of two or more structures in two or more dimensions with picometer-scale precision and registration by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) comprising the steps of: (a) projecting an incident focused laser light on at least one or more fiducial marks on a first structure of said two or more structures to scatter light off at least a first fiducial mark of a first structure; (b) projecting an incident focused laser light on at least a second structure of said at least two or more structures to scatter light off at least said second structure, said at least second structure being an SPM tip; (c) receiving by a photo-sensitive device a portion of the light scattered off the first fiducial mark of the first structure, said photo-sensitive device converting the received scattered light into one of electrical or optical signals, which determine the position of said first fiducial mark; (d) receiving by a photo-sensitive device a portion of the light scattered off the SPM tip, said photo-sensitive device converting the received scattered light into one of electrical or optical signals, which determine the position of said SPM tip; (e) providing output control signals that are related to a characteristic of the signal outputs by providing a feedback algorithm/processor for the outputs of the photo-sensitive device, to utilize at least one characteristic of each of the outputs of the photo-sensitive, device to generate the output control signals over a time interval; and, (f) repositioning the first structure by a precision-positioner with respect to the at least second structure until the signals received from the photo-sensitive device and inputs to the feedback algorithm or processor contain attributes within a predetermined range such that an amount of separation determined, in at least two dimensions between at least the first structure and the SPM tip are within a prescribed picometer-scale precision.