A cantilever with a sharp tip is one of the key components of the atomic force microscope (AFM), and it is the origin of artifacts in AFM images. A probe characterizer for AFM was developed to analyze the accurate probe-shape. A reference material, which includes accurate lines and spaces, was developed using multilayer-thin films. Lines and spaces ranging from 5 nm to 100 nm can be fabricated using a multi-layer film structure. The comb-shape grating was developed for correcting AFM images. Apparent probe shapes can be determined under various experimental parameters, and actual probe shape can be obtained under optimized set-points of force and feedback parameters. As a result, reliability of AFM images can be improved significantly.