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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.