4-channel Regulator for Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM)

Design of electronics for heating system in cooperation with NenoVision.

4-channel Regulator for Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM)

Design of electronics for heating system in cooperation with NenoVision.

Development of a 4-channel Regulator on Aluminum plate.

NenoVision fabricate a unique atomic force microscope by name LiteScope™ designed for easy integration into various scanning electron microscopes, allowing in-situ collerative characterization of the sample in the nanoscale.

Our task in cooperation with NenoVision was to development of a universal 4-channel power regulator witch voltage and current limitation driven by ADC to specially adapted version LiteScope
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The 4-channel controller that we developed allows to independently control the outputs of four analog stabilizers using four analog inputs. We have designed the system universally so that it is possible to adjust the gain and sensitivity of individual regulators. All power and control inputs and outputs are protected by overvoltage protectors, ESD protectors and reverse polarity protectors with a very fast response, making the regulator almost impossible to destroy. However, even in the event of a fault, thanks to the LED, it is possible to quickly and easily locate the eventual fault. Each regulator has its own current limiter, which allows the regulators to switch to current mode.

The regulator system have a sophisticated ripple filtering solution using selectively distributed multi-band capacitors. The control circuits themselves are additionally improved by a low-pass filter on the power supply. Thanks to this, the supply of the control circuit itself is separated from possible high-speed voltage drops on the main branch of the source. Thanks to its sophisticated design, the regulator itself is very precise, temperature stable and does not suffer from ripples and high noise. The regulators are galvanically separated from each other, so it is possible to power each regulator with its own source at different potentials. However, this functionality can be easily excluded from the function using jumpers, which allow each potential of each regulator to be connected to a shared power branch, which again increases the variability of use. We managed the design of the PCB itself on a two-layer PCB, and despite the very densely stacked components, we managed to distribute the power supply and ground with very robust routing. Thanks to the flat design on the aluminum core, we met the requirement for heat dissipation using the chassis.

The request from NenoVision was to use a computer-controlled ADC to selectively heat the parts in the specified places in the microscope, which we managed well thanks to our solution. In addition, thanks to the multi-channel solution, our system also serves as a stable source of some other systems.

4-channel Regulator for Scanning Probe Microscope

Universal design powered by Aluminium plate PCB

4 variably galvanically separated channels

Powerful circuits protections

Simple fault identification

Multiband filtering of sensitive circuits

High temperature stability and low noise

Aluminum core for high-quality heat dissipation