A driving scheme for improving the effective response of a microfabricated cantilever with an integrated thermal bimorph actuator is proposed for applications in high-throughput atomic-force microscopy. The essential part of the proposed scheme is a tuned boost filter (BSF), which is inserted in the setup for constant force imaging and which boosts the servo signal according to its frequency. Using this setup, an imaging bandwidth of 5 kHz was obtained within an actuation range of 1.7 μm. Constant force imaging with a tip velocity of 0.62 mm/s is demonstrated and the effectiveness of the BSF is verified. The improved bandwidth is gained at the expense of the achievable deflection range. An optimized system, therefore, requires not only a BSF but also a thermal bimorph with a large power to deflection efficiency.

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