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 13):
An atomic force microscope (AFM), in particular for carrying out the method according to  claim 1 , comprising:\n i. 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 configured for being moved forth and back during respective trace and retrace times of a scan line, and caused to oscillate by an excitation signal, ii. a detector for measuring an amplitude of oscillation of the probe, iii. a first feedback loop configured for 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  during the trace time, and iv. a second feedback loop configured for changing, in the first feedback loop, the setpoint value A set  to a different value A set +A mock  during the retrace time so that the first feedback loop causes the probe to move away from the sample and oscillate free of interaction with the sample, the second feedback loop being configured for adjusting the excitation signal of the probe to maintain the amplitude of free oscillation of the probe close to a set value A free .

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): 0.6921804255433378
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5082104643842085
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.673783429427425
- Mean Citation Score: 299.7088080000001
- Max Citation Score: 309.74384
- Similarity Product: 235.9819998367309

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