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Chronology of SPM developments
Developments
  
Industry Events
1981
 STM invented at IBM-Zurich by Binnig and Rohrer.    
1982
 First atomic resolution demonstrated by Binnig on Si(7x7)    
1983
      
1984
 First Near-field Optical Microscope is invented   Omicron is founded
1985
 Binnig, Gerber, and Quate develop the first AFM    
1986
 Binnig and Rohrer share half the Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the STM    
1987

First Atomic resolution with the AFM demonstrated by T. Albrecht at Stanford

Noncontact AFM introduced

MFM invented

   Digital Instruments is founded by Univ. of California - Santa Barbara researchers.
1988
 First commercial AFM available  

Park Scientific is founded by Stanford researchers
1989
    

Topometrix is founded

Burleigh Instruments offers SPM systems
1990
      
1991
 Microfabricated AFM probes are first introduced   First AFM probe company founded, Nanoprobe (later renamed Nanosensors)
1992

Piezolevers are first introduced

Shear-force detection type NSOM/SNOM first introduced

   Quesant is founded
1993
 TappingMode® is first introduced.   Molecular Imaging is founded by Arizona State Univ. researchers.
1994
 TappingMode® in fluids is first introduced    
1995
     Nanonics is founded
1996
 MACMode® is introduced    
1997
    

ThermoSpectra acquires Park Scientific

WITec founded by Universität Ulm researchers

Nanosurf founded by Universität Basel researchers
1998
     Veeco Instruments acquires Digital Instruments
1999
     Asylum Research founded by former Digital Instruments employees
2000
      
2001
     Veeco acquires ThermoMicroscopes, renaming it TM Microscopes.
2002
     Digital Instruments and TM Microscopes merged with Veeco Metrology Group.

Note: This list is by no means meant to be comprehensive. Some advancements in SPM and some corporate foundings may have been left out.

TappingMode is a registered trademark of Digital Instruments, Veeco Metrology Group.
MACMode is a registered trademark of Molecular Imaging Corp.
 
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