An Online Automatic Method for Correction of Piezoelectric Scanner

A novel online auto-correction method is proposed in this paper, according to the nonlinearity and hysteresis of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) piezoelectric ceramics scanner. In this method, an automatic positioning algorithm is invoked to get the same characteristic points from the forward and backward scanning line; these points are used to calculate the distortion factors to realized image correction. Mathematical derivation of the correction principle is given, and automatic positioning algorithm based on successive template comparison is introduced. Finally situations may cause invalidation of the method are discussed and solutions are given. Practice proves that the method is effective and can be applied in AFM automation.