Ardic Instruments, Taiwan, introduces the P300, a modular atomic force microscope that is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of resolutions, scan speeds, scan ranges, and budgets. The modularity also extends to the software design. Especially useful for industrial customers, the P300 software architecture allows for customized workflows, interfaces, analytics, and reports.
The instrument simplifies traditionally complex procedures such as probe loading, alignment, tuning, and approach. This allows for workflows that result in less user error and reduced training time.
According to Edward Chyau, the company’s founder and CEO, “Through visiting the facilities of our customers and understanding their needs, we’ve noticed a large of amount of wasted capital expenditure and labor time as a result of inflexibility. When a lab needs to upgrade its system to accommodate for higher scan resolutions, researchers often end up buying a new system altogether.
“While that may be necessary in some situations, we saw the opportunity to offer a solution that allows the user to simply interchange key components. We also noticed many users extracting data from their existing AFMs and manually producing routine analysis and reports. To alleviate that issue, we designed our software to be modular and easily customizable.”
