# US 10,871,505 B2 · Data processing device for scanning probe microscope

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 10,871,505 B2
- Document ID: US10871505B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/312,729
- Filed: 2016-06-24
- Published: 2019-12-19
- Granted: 2020-12-22
- Earliest claimed: 2016-06-24
- Assignees: Shimadzij Corporation
- Applicants: Shimadzu Corporation
- Inventors: Kenji Yamasaki; Akinori Kogure
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10871505B2

## CPC

- G01Q 30/04: Display or data processing devices
- G01Q 60/38: Probes, their manufacture, or their related instrumentation, e.g. holders
- G01B 9/04: Measuring microscopes
- G01Q 70/08: Probe characteristics
- G01Q: SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES OR APPARATUS; APPLICATIONS OF SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES, e.g. SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY [SPM]
- G01B: MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEAR DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS

## Abstract

A data processing device for a scanning probe microscope, the data processing device processing biaxial data indicating a change in a second physical quantity with respect to a change in a first physical quantity, the biaxial data being acquired for each of a plurality of measurement points on a sample surface by scanning the sample surface with a probe using a scanning probe microscope, the data processing device includes: a feature amount calculator 41 that acquires one or a plurality of types of feature amounts from the biaxial data at each measurement point; a feature amount selector 42 that causes a user to select one of the one or the plurality of types of feature amounts; a two-dimensional mapping image display unit 43 that displays the feature amount on a screen as a two-dimensional mapping image with each measurement point as one pixel based on selection of the feature amount by the user; and a biaxial data display unit 44 that, when the user selects one of the pixels in the two-dimensional mapping image, displays on the screen the selected pixel and the biaxial data of the measurement point corresponding to one or a plurality of pixels adjacent to the selected pixel.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A data processing device for a scanning probe microscope, the data processing device processing biaxial data indicating a change in a second physical quantity with respect to a change in a first physical quantity, the biaxial data being acquired for each of a plurality of measurement points on a sample surface by scanning the sample surface with a probe using a scanning probe microscope, the data processing device comprising:
a) a feature amount calculator that acquires one or a plurality of types of feature amounts from the biaxial data at each of the plurality of measurement points;
b) a feature amount selector that causes a user to select one of the one or the plurality of types of feature amounts;
c) a two-dimensional mapping image display unit that displays the feature amount at each of the plurality of measurement points on a screen as a two-dimensional mapping image with each measurement point as one pixel based on selection of the feature amount by the user; and
d) a biaxial data display unit that, when the user selects one of the pixels in the two-dimensional mapping image, displays on the screen the selected pixel and the biaxial data of the measurement point corresponding to one or a plurality of pixels adjacent to the selected pixel.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The data processing device for a scanning probe microscope according to claim 1, further comprising
e) an magnification display unit that, when the user selects one or a plurality of pieces of biaxial data displayed on the screen, magnifies and displays the selected biaxial data.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The data processing device for a scanning probe microscope according to claim 2, wherein when the user selects the plurality of pieces of biaxial data, the magnification display unit displays a position on the two-dimensional mapping image, the position corresponding to each of the plurality of pieces of biaxial data.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The data processing device for a scanning probe microscope according to claim 1, further comprising
f) a two-dimensional data display unit that, when the user selects two pixels in the two-dimensional mapping image, produces data in which a value of the second physical quantities are represented within a two-dimensional area in a visually distinguishable manner, in which one axis is defined as a position on the line segment connecting two points of the selected two pixels and another one axis is defined as a value of the first physical quantity, and displays the two-dimensional data on the screen with a position on the line segment connecting two points of the selected two pixels as one axis.