Instrumentation issues of an AFM based nanorobotic system

While the atomic force microscope (AFM) was mainly developed to image the topography of a sample, it has been discovered as a powerful tool also for nanomanipulation applications within the last decade. A variety of different manipulation types exists, ranging from dip-pen and mechanical lithography to assembly of nanoobjects like carbon nanotubes (CNTs), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strains, or nanospheres. The latter, the assembly of nanoobjects, is a very promising technique for prototyping nanoelectronical devices that are composed of DNA-based nanowires, CNTs, etc. But, pushing nanoobjects in the order of a few nanometers nowadays remains a very challenging, labor-intensive task that requires frequent human intervention. To increase throughput of AFM-based nanomanipulation, automation can be considered as a long-term goal. However, automation is impeded by a large nulber of uncertainties existing in every AFM system.