Robust Hybrid Control of an Atomic Force Microscope for the Characterization of Interaction Force Regions at the Nanoscale

This article deals with a novel hybrid control of an atomic force microscope (AFM) for the robust characterization of interaction tip/sample force regions. The hybrid structure is composed of several position and force controllers and a specific switch compensation structure. A single selected contr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on control systems technology 2021-07, Vol.29 (4), p.1689-1703
Main Authors: Cailliez, Jonathan, Boudaoud, Mokrane, Liang, Shuai, Regnier, Stephane
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuators
Atomic force microscope (AFM)
Atomic force microscopes
Atomic force microscopy
Automatic
Compensators
Control methods
Control systems design
Control theory
Controllers
Engineering Sciences
Hybrid control
Hybrid structures
Landing
Micro and nanotechnologies
Microelectronics
Microscopes
nanorobotics
Parameter uncertainty
Physics
piezoelectric actuator
Piezoelectric actuators
Robust control
Robustness
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Summary:This article deals with a novel hybrid control of an atomic force microscope (AFM) for the robust characterization of interaction tip/sample force regions. The hybrid structure is composed of several position and force controllers and a specific switch compensation structure. A single selected controller is online at a time, and a robust bumpless switch between different control laws is designed. The objectives are the robustness of each controller and switch compensator with respect to uncertain parameters of the AFM. The method uses discrete points in the range of uncertainties. For each operating point, the hybrid controller is designed by an eigenstructure assignment. The method is generalized by a multimodel approach considering only uncertainties defined by a worst-case analysis, thus reducing the conservatism. The order of the controller is related to the number of observers selected by the user. This offers the possibility to design a low-order controller depending on the control specifications. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the hybrid controller for a fully automated landing procedure of the AFM tip on a sample surface and for force distance curve cycle characterization. Thanks to the robustness of the control method, landing and cycles are reproducible despite actuator uncertainties, friction variation due to aging, and instrumental issues such as the real-time data acquisition.
ISSN:1063-6536
1558-0865
DOI:10.1109/TCST.2020.2985007