To avoid repeatedly answering the same basic questions about my background, here is a short description of my 16 years of SPM experience. I built my first STM for use in my graduate research back in 1986 working with Professor Peter N. Henriksen at the University of Akron Department of Physics. I joined Angstrom Technology in 1988, an early STM manufacturer, now gone. In 1990 I tried my hand at starting my own business "No Bell Instruments" I wrote the NANO2PS and NANO2PST software for the Digital Instruments Nanoscope II to convert image screen dump files into PostScript and TIFF formats and I created the "Micro Tip" automatic Tungsten tip etcher. After barely eking out a living, I joined Park Scientific Instruments (now called ThermoMicroscopes) in 1991 to work on the development of the AutoProbe line of scanning probe microscopes (SPM). I was primarily in charge of the electronics design. I made a few design contributions that ended up in Patents including this disk scanner for mounting on an optical microscope objective, a simple active vibration cancellation system, and some contributions to the AutoProbe's scan linerization. I left ThermoMicroscopes and now work for KLA-Tencor. Because the tools I am working on are not yet announced I can’t say much other than they are SPM related. I still have a keen interest in SPM . This web page is my forum for my simple STM design.

Thank you for visiting my web site. I hope you find this project interesting.

John D. Alexander

Resume: Publications: Patents: