CMOS-MEMS atomic force microscope

We present a CMOS-MEMS atomic force microscope (AFM) with integrated 3-D MEMS actuation and 3-axis position sensing. CMOS driving and sensing electronics have been integrated in the same fabrication process. Our goal is to replace piezoelectric positioning systems which are bulky (leading to thermal drift and poor vibration immunity) and suffer from inherent creep (leading to image distortion). As such, the focus of this work is to leverage the myriad physical benefits of dimensional scaling to improve performance when compared to a conventional AFM. To the best of the authors´ knowledge, this is the first integrated MEMS-AFM that can image a sample without the need for off-chip scanners or laser-based position sensing.