Installation

Installation

1.Installation of the STMAFM Software package and the required Hardware

The STMAFM - Software package uses the digital signal processor (DSP) board SBC6711 (150MHz/250MHz) from Innovative Integration ( www.innovative-dsp.com ). The SBC6711 is connected to the PC by a standard USB 1.1 cable. Optionally a high speed USB 2.0 FPGA adapter board is available. The drivers for the SBC6711 available from Innovative Integration support Windows 2000/XP. Support for Windows 7 is available through the optional USB 2.0 FPGA adapter board only. A single Createc ADDA board (6ch 20bit DA, 4ch 18bit AD) is used by the software in the standard configuration. A second board can be optionally installed for AFM operation (PLL) or just to double the available number of ADC's and DAC's. Also another 4 channel 16bit DAC board can be attached to each standard ADDA board.

The STMAFM-Program can be operated together with the DSP-board for Data Acquisition, but also without the board for Data Analysis. In the latter case no driver installation is needed. Several instants of the STMAFM-Program can be run simultaneously on the same computer, but only one will startup in Data Acquisition mode. The program running in Data Acquisition mode will inform the other programs if new data has been acquired and saved.

1.1 How to install the hardware: Switch on the DSP electronics box before (!) connecting the USB cable from the electronics to the USB input of a PC. The first time hardware installation is described here.

1.2 How to install the software:

To deinstall an older version of the software go to Settings>Control Panel>Software and remove the STMAFM software. To install a new full release, please copy the Setup.exe file to a temporary directory and start the file. Follow the instructions on the screen of the standard Installshield procedure.

First Steps

Basic Structure of the Software

The software consists of several windows. The main window STMAFM contains all necessary control elements to for data acquisition and image analysis. The software is controlled by set of parameters which can be accessed through the form (window) called 'Parameter'. On several panels all important parameters can be adjusted. Additional windows for lateral and vertical manipulation, I/V spectroscopy, data recording, coarse approach control, 3d rendering etc are available. On startup the software tries to access the Createc DSP Electronic, which needs to be switched on and connected beforehand. If the electronics can not be found the software starts up in analysis mode.

Several instances of the software can be run at the same time, but only the first one will be in Data Acqusition mode. It is usually good to start up two instances of the software. The first for data acquisition, and a second for data analysis. This is supported by a communication channel which is setup between all instances. Newly acquired and saved images will be automatically communicated to other instances on the computer.

1. First steps To learn about the different features of the STMAFM program load a test file A....dat. from the file menu. Test the different kinds of image processing and analysis using this file. Most of the features are almost self explaining, but will be discussed later in this manual.

2. How to take an image Start the STMAFM-Program. Select the image size, the scan area and scan speed on the 'SCAN' panel in the Parameter window.

Start the scan by pressing the <Start> - button.

When the scan is finished, click on the <QSave> - button to save the scan in the current directory.