PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16097970
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["850", "004000"]

Abstract:
A method of operating an atomic force microscope, comprising a probe, the probe being moved forth and back during respective trace and retrace times of a scan line, the method comprising: a) during trace time, oscillating the probe, b) generating a z feedback signal to keep an amplitude of oscillation of the probe constant at a setpoint value, the z feedback signal being generated by a first feedback loop, c) during retrace time, placing the probe in a drift compensation state by changing the setpoint value to a different value so that the z feedback signal being generated by the first feedback loop causes the probe to move away from the sample and oscillate free, d) detecting an amplitude of free oscillation of the probe and adjusting with a second feedback loop its excitation signal to maintain the amplitude of free oscillation of the probe close to a set value.

Claim (Index 1):
A method of operating an atomic force microscope (AFM), comprising a probe displaceable relative to a sample along scan lines in an imaging x-y plane and along a z axis perpendicular to the x-y plane, the probe being moved forth and back during respective trace and retrace times of a scan line, and caused to oscillate by an excitation signal, the method comprising:\n a) during trace time, placing the probe in an operating state in which the probe oscillates along the z axis and interacts with the sample, b) generating a z feedback signal to displace the probe relative to the sample along the z axis to keep an amplitude of oscillation of the probe constant at a setpoint value A set , the z feedback signal being generated by a first feedback loop at least on the basis of the setpoint value A set  and having as input a measured amplitude value of oscillation of the probe, c) during retrace time, placing the probe in a drift compensation state by changing the setpoint value A set  to a different value A set +A mock  so that the z feedback signal being generated by the first feedback loop causes the probe to move away from the sample and oscillate free of interaction with the sample, d) detecting an amplitude of free oscillation of the probe and adjusting with a second feedback loop the excitation signal of the probe to maintain the amplitude of free oscillation of the probe close to a set value A free , e) returning the probe in interaction with the sample for a next scan line by restoring the setpoint value A set  for the generation of the z feedback signal by the first feedback loop while applying the adjusted excitation signal of previous step to the probe.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 10.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.22973
- Patent Class: 850.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['14172710', '15806103', '12958323', '13694095', '15083727']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6922708465332815
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5073343361995967
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.673777195499913
- Mean Citation Score: 299.7088080000001
- Max Citation Score: 309.74384
- Similarity Product: 241.6021248661709

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test