Commercial atomic force microscopes (AFM) began in the late 1980s, where the main manufacturers in the U.S. included Gigital Instruments and Park System. Digital Instruments (DI) was started in 1987 by Professor Virgil Elings, a physics professor at UCSB. DI's first product was the analog scanning tunneling microscope Nanoscope I (the digital version appeared a year later called Nanoscope II). Park Scientific Instruments was started in 1988 by Dr. Sang-il Park and Sung Park, who had previously worked with Professor Cal Quate from Stanford University, one of the pioneering authors of the AFM paper. Shortly thereafter, Seiko Instruments from Japan also began producing their own AFM.
Returning to Veeco, at the time Veeco acquired Digital Instruments, some scientists from DI separated to establish their own AFM company called Asylum Research (which just celebrated its 20th anniversary). But even Asylum Research could not escape the acquisition culture as in 2012, it was acquired by Oxford Instruments. Now it is officially called Asylum Research, Oxford Instruments.
And what happened to Veeco? The company is still doing well. But in 2010, they sold their AFM product line to the equipment company Bruker, and to this day Bruker is still distributing this product.
That is just the story of the first 2 AFM companies. There have been different branches establishing AFM supply companies. Stuart Lindsay from Arizona State University founded an AFM company named Molecular Imaging in 1993, which produced the best AFM with environmental chambers and electrochemical chambers. In 2005, Agilent acquired Molecular Imaging. Later, this product code from Agilent transitioned to Keysight Technologies. Unfortunately, recently Keysight stopped its AFM business because Molecular Imaging's AFM was the true pioneer for AFM operating under any environmental conditions at that time. AFMWorkshop was also started in 2009 by Paul West (co-founder of Topometrix) and continues to thrive.
Expanding beyond the United States, there has also been quite a bit of activity in developing AFM equipment abroad. Nanosurf, a Swiss company, was founded in 1997 and today produces various types of AFM for many different applications. In Germany, JPK (named after the founders Torsten Jahnke, Franz Pelzer, and Jorn Kamps) was established in 1999, where it produces AFM specifically for biological measurements. In 2018, JPK was acquired by Bruker. Currently, there are major AFM manufacturers in Japan, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, and it is certain that this list is growing.
This is not a complete history of AFM companies. It is only meant to provide some information about the history of this great commercial product. After many mergers, acquisitions, and even shutdowns, according to statistics from a reputable website about AFM worldwide, there are about 20 companies currently providing this product and service. Based on the recorded historical information, it can be seen that most major AFM manufacturers have the same origins, such as: Bruker, Oxford Instruments, or Park System. Currently, Oxford Instruments offers the highest and most modern resolution products available. Some companies focus on lower-cost products like AFMworkshop.
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