Active CMOS-MEMS conductive probes and arrays for tunneling-based atomic-level surface imaging

Author

Zhang, Y. ; Wang, J. ; Santhanam, S. ; Fedder, G.K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

2446

Lastpage

2449

Abstract

This paper reports on development of AFM-like active CMOS-MEMS conductive probes and arrays. The active probes are aimed for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging and field-emission (FE) assisted nanostructure formation. Two kinds of STM tip approaches compatible with CMOS-MEMS process - Electron-Induced Beam Deposition (EBID) and Spindt tip method - are presented, and their functionality is examined. Atomic-level resolution is achieved using tips in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) STM. The MEMS probe working in ambient STM is also demonstrated. The active probe is equipped with a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for tip FE current measurement around a nominal value of 1 nA.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; atomic force microscopy; micromechanical devices; operational amplifiers; probes; scanning tunnelling microscopy; AFM-like active CMOS-MEMS conductive probes; FE assisted nanostructure formation; FE current measurement; STM imaging; Spindt tip method; TIA; UHV STM; atomic-level resolution; electron-induced beam deposition method; field-emission assisted nanostructure formation; scanning tunneling microscopy imaging; transimpedance amplifier; tunneling-based atomic-level surface imaging; ultrahigh vacuum STM; Atomic force microscopy; CMOS integrated circuits; Force; Micromechanical devices; Probes; Silicon; CMOS MEMS; SPM; probe array; thermal actuation;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969662

Filename

5969662