Design of a system for electronic refurbishment of mechanical Dektak II profilometer

This Thesis for the degree Grado en Ingeniería de Tecnologías y Servicios de Telecomunicación (GITST) has been developed at Centro de Materiales y Dispositivos Avanzados para las TIC (CEMDATIC), at Departamento de Tecnología Fotónica y Bioingeniería (TFB), at Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación (ETSIT), at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Microelectronics and nanotechnology research laboratories use surface characterization systems known as profilometers. These can be of two types, optical and mechanical. Usually, over the years, the software becomes obsolete, making it impossible to install it on current computers, or the electronic circuits break down. However, these equipments are still excellent in terms of their mechanical construction. At CEMDATIC, there is a DEKTAK IIA unit with broken electronics that is intended to be renewed. This instrument is a mechanical profilometer that allows acquiring the morphology of a sample by sweeping a tip over its surface. The purpose of this project is to design an electronic system to replace the original DEKTAK IIA electronics, providing it with a new control software. The electronics are controlled by an Arduino Uno microcontroller programmed in C++. This device is responsible for controlling the motors, the detector head and transferring the data to/from the computer. A user interface has been programmed that allows control of the instrument and visualization of the data. The developed system has been validated by carrying out some preliminary measurements, detecting height variations of less than 30 µm