Development of a multiprobe instrument for measuring microstructure surface topography

This paper presents a multiprobe instrument for measuring the surface topography of microstructures. The instrument consists of a white light interference (WLI) microscope and an atomic force microscope (AFM), which work in conjunction with a precise positioning platform and can be switched freely by using a large-range kinematic axis mounted on the crossbeam of the supporting framework. To verify the performance of the instrument, a calibrated nanodimensional standard was measured. The results are given for the instrument and show good accuracy. To demonstrate the instrument's ease of use, a suspension spring in a microcapacitive sensor was measured and characterized by using the two probes interactively.