Two innovations underlie Tiptek's product line of ultra-hard and ultra-sharp AFM probes. First, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used to coat the probe tips with a chemically inert, highly conductive, and extremely hard material such as a metal diboride film (hardness up to 40 GPa depending on crystallinity). Second, field directed sputter sharpening (FDSS), a proprietary process developed by Tiptek co-founders, sharpens the probe tip to atomic dimensions in a self-limiting fashion that does not require skilled operator intervention.  

For example, initial studies show that the FDSS technique is able to sharpen an HfB₂ coated tip to a 4 nm radius of curvature.