Micromachines for Microchips: Bringing the AFM up to Speed
Abstract
This Phase I SBIR final report, developed under contract for topic number DARPA SB992-039, outlines improvements made to the atomic force microscope (AFM) in order to increase its imaging speed 30 to 100 times in the contact mode. Faster imaging will allow the AFM to be used in high throughput military and microelectronic manufacturing applications. The crux of the effort is to eliminate the rate-limiting element of the conventional AFM: the piezoelectric z-axis tube actuator. This actuator is typically large, and therefore slow (about 600 Hz resonance). In this work the bulk actuator is replaced by one fabricated (using microelectronic processes) directly onto the microscope's cantilever. The new actuator is much smaller, and therefore much faster (60 kHz resonance). When integrating the actuator directly onto the cantilever, the dynamics of the sensing instrumentation are changed. This change is corrected with a high-speed electronic circuit Likewise, the remaining circuitry within the microscope must be modified to accommodate the taster signals. Atomic force microscope images taken 30 to 100 times faster are presented. This speed improvement allows atomic scale video rate imaging.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 20, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA375973
Entities
People
- Stephen C. Minne