An atomic force microscope of your own.
Nanometre-scale surface imaging from €2,999, built around an ingenious optical architecture and shipped worldwide.
€2,999 for the base instrument. VAT and shipping are not included. Standard lead time is approximately 20 working days after payment confirmation.
Base instrument, excluding VAT and shipping.
Best reported vertical resolution of the base instrument.
Published papers report results measured using a DIY AFM.
Selected as a Best Practice initiative for the World Expo in Osaka.
Real output
What it actually sees.
These are not illustrations. Every frame below came off a Strømlingo DIY AFM.
Real images captured with a Strømlingo DIY AFM: DVD RW and Blu-ray data tracks, paint, polished iron, healthy and diseased skin, mouse and pig skin, collagen, and hair. The widest frame is 20 µm across — a human hair is nearly four times wider.
The architecture
The optics come out of a DVD drive.
An atomic force microscope moves a very fine tip across a surface and measures how the tip rises and falls. The tip has never been the hard part. Detecting a deflection of a few nanometres is, and that normally means optics and actuators machined to order.
DVD and Blu-ray optical pickup units already contain that combination: lasers, diffraction-limited optics, a high-bandwidth detector and nano-resolution actuators, manufactured at enormous scale for consumer drives. Strømlinet Nano designs the microscope around this existing optical technology.
That is where the price comes from. Not a cheaper microscope. A different supply chain.
“A feat of ingenuity and technical skill bordering on the improbable.”
nanotechweb review, IOP Publishing
In use
See it scanning.
Two minutes on what the instrument is for and what it produces. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
The instrument
One instrument, open from end to end.
The Strømlingo DIY AFM ships as a base instrument with an Arduino controller and an open framework with open-source Arduino code, a user manual and calibration videos.
Scanner head and controller
The scanning head, the Arduino-based controller and a single USB connection to a laptop. The Arduino controller is the official standard version.
Full specification →Manuals and calibration
Manuals and calibration videos are included, covering laser focus, scanning and XY scanner calibration step by step.
Watch the walkthroughs →High-Speed upgrade
An optional upgrade path that customers carry out themselves, using an openly published design. Not included in the base price.
About the upgrade →Track record
Where it has ended up.
The DIY AFM began as a summer-school project in 2013 and has since been through school classrooms, university teaching labs and research groups on six continents.
- Bought by 29 institutions, from Liverpool to Wollongong
- Selected as one of 25 Best Practices from more than 2,000 competing teams at Expo 2025 Osaka, the only one from Denmark
- The technology originates from the national metrology institute of Germany, and the printed circuit board framework was inspired by Sebastian Bütefisch of the same institute.
- Grew out of the LEGO2NANO project
Ask for a quote.
Tell us what you want to measure and we will come back with a quote and an honest answer about whether it fits.
- €2,999 for the base instrument
- VAT and shipping are not included
- Shipped worldwide
- Approximately 20 working days after payment confirmation
- service@stromlinet-nano.com