COUPLED SPRING SYSTEM FOR MEASURING MOLECULAR FORCES

摘要

A coupled spring system is applied to dynamic force spectroscopy measurements. A microcantilever-mounted probe (19) acts as a first spring, and a supported micromachined membrane (15) acts as a second spring. The coupled spring system provides a system spring constant that is lower than either spring individually. By probing different regions of the membrane (15), the spring constant of the system can be varied.