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US 9,286,687 B1Granted
System and method for estimating the magnetization states of a nanomagnet array
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsRavi Panchumarthy, Dinuka K. Karunaratne, Sudeep Sarkar, Sanjukta Bhanja
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for image-processing that will facilitate automatically analyzing and estimating atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images of fabricated nanomagnetic arrays to identify the magnetization states of the nanomagnets in the array. The system and method will automatically estimate the magnetization states of nanomagnetics disks into one of a plurality of energy minimum magnetization state configurations and provide an annotated image of the results of the estimation.
Claims20
A method of estimating the magnetization state of each of a plurality of nanomagnets of a nanomagnet array, the method comprising:
- obtaining an atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of a nanomagnet array comprising a plurality of nanomagnets;
- obtaining a magnetic force microscopy (MFM) image of the nanomagnet array;
- segmenting the AFM image to distinguish a surface characteristic region of the nanomagnet array from the plurality of nanomagnets to generate a segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the MFM image of the nanomagnet array based upon the location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- extracting one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image;
- and
- estimating an energy minimum magnetization state configuration of each of the plurality of nanomagnets using a magnetization state estimator configured to estimate each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array as one of a plurality of energy minimum magnetization state configurations based upon the one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image.
5 more elements
A method of estimating the magnetization state of each of a plurality of nanomagnets of a nanomagnet array, the method comprising:
- obtaining a base layout image of the nanomagnet array;
- obtaining an atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of a nanomagnet array comprising a plurality of nanomagnets;
- obtaining a magnetic force microscopy (MFM) image of the nanomagnet array;
- segmenting the AFM image to distinguish a surface characteristic region of the nanomagnet array from the plurality of nanomagnets to generate a segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- aligning the annotated magnetization state image with the base layout image to generate an aligned annotated magnetization state image;
- identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the MFM image of the nanomagnet array based upon the location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- extracting one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image;
- estimating an energy minimum magnetization state configuration of each of the plurality of nanomagnets using a magnetization state estimator configured to estimate each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array as one of a plurality of energy minimum magnetization state configurations based upon the one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image;
- and
- aligning the annotated magnetization state image with the base layout image and generating an annotated magnetization state image illustrating the magnetization state estimation of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array to generate an aligned annotated magnetization state image of the nanomagnet array.
8 more elements
A system for estimating the magnetization state of a nanomagnet array comprising a plurality of nanomagnets, the system comprising:
- an image segmentation module configured for segmenting an AFM image of a nanomagnet array to distinguish a surface characteristic region of the nanomagnet array from the plurality of nanomagnets to generate a segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array;
- an image feature extraction module configured for identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array, identifying a location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on an MFM image of the nanomagnet array based upon the location of each of the plurality of nanomagnets on the segmented AFM image of the nanomagnet array and extracting one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image;
- and
- a magnetization state estimator configured for estimating each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array as one of a plurality of energy minimum magnetization state configurations based upon the one or more image features at each of the identified locations of each of the plurality of nanomagnets in the nanomagnet array on the MFM image.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.