Integrated SPM probes with NEMS technology

Two kinds of integrated scanning probe microscope (SPM) probes are developed. The first kind is AFM probes realized with a novel masked–maskless combined etching process. Both the nano-tips for scanning and the bending cantilevers are simultaneously formed with the masked–maskless combined anisotropic etching technique. The simultaneous formation method effectively avoids damage to the previously formed tips when the cantilever shaping is processed. The testing results for the probes show the imaging quality comparable with commercial probes. The second kind of probes is an integrated probe with both a piezoresistive sensor and an electric-heated tip. This kind of probe is used for thermal–mechanical data storage, with the pulse-heated tip for data writing and the piezoresistive sensor for data reading. Nano-sized bumps have been formed by probe scanning on PMMA thin film, resulting in a storage density beyond 30 GB/in.2.