US Patent 7233517 - Coated atomic force probe for data storage

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7233517.html

A variety of companies are working on implementing high density memories approaching Terabit/in^2 using scanning probe technologies that were originally designed as microscopes for the atomic and molecular scale in the 1980's. This patent is from a company called Nanochip and provides some fairly broad claims drawn to the use of a coated atomic tip for such data storage. For example claim 2 reads:

2. An atomic probe for high density data storage reading, writing, erasing, or rewriting, comprising: a core coupled with a coating; and wherein the coating contacts a media device.

Unfortunately, the Examiner may have overlooked references such as

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6198300.html

which teaches metal coated AFMs.