Asylum Research provides its MFP-3D and Cypher atomic force microscopes (AFMs) with capabilities that require no programming to perform advanced imaging and measurements.
For more advanced, automated and out-of-the-box experiments, the company also provides a user-driven programming language called Igor.
The new Macrobuilder interface allows novices to implement Igor customisation - without writing any code - by dragging Macrobuilder 'modules' together to form macros that can automate many measurements and analyses and be saved for repeated use.
Each module performs a specific operation, such as moving the tip to a position, collecting thermal data or displaying the next saved force plot.
Automation can range from simple tasks where the user might want to make a sequence of measurements - say take a series of images with different set points or a series of force curves at different positions on a sample - to more sophisticated procedures where the Macrobuilder software makes decisions; for example, the Macrobuilder can decide to change subsequent measurement routines depending on the outcome of previous experiments.
An additional benefit is that automated data acquisition can improve throughput and even increase repeatability by removing arbitrariness from the imaging and measurement process.
More than 50 modules are currently included with the Asylum software.
The Macrobuilder comes standard in the Asylum Research software at no additional cost to the user.
