About the MFP3D

The MFP3D is an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) manufactured by Asylum Research. We have used Igor Pro as the foundation of its real time control and data acquisition functions, as well as for its offline analysis and data manipulation.

The MFP3D images a surface at sub-optical resolution. Data is transferred over the USB port by means of various XOP functions we have written. Using Igor's built-in WaveForm support the software can easily create time series data to pass down to the controller, which then drives the microscope.

Images of up to 4096x4096 pixels can be collected and displayed on two monitors. This real-time display can be done in standard 2D image plots, as well as in open GL 3D surface renderings using our custom XOPs.

About Igor Pro

Igor Pro has provided us with an amazing library of graphics tools. It has also given us a natural interface between out low-level and high-level software engineers, which has greatly eased software development in a number of ways. Not only have we been able to develop our software with a smaller, more focused group of engineers, but we have also been able to get a more developed product to market faster as a result of choosing Igor Pro.

Additionally, the selection of Igor Pro as the foundation of our software has made software updates much easier. With over 2000 user-defined functions, comprising over 3 Megs of ASCII code, Asylum Research has shown that Igor Pro is scalable to very demanding software projects.

But one of the most important benefits of our choice to use Igor Pro is that it has allowed our users to write their own code to acquire and analyze data. By definition most novel research will to require new, custom software. Igor pro has made this a lot easier for our customers.

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