Integrated nitride cantilever array with Si heaters and piezoelectric detectors for nano-data-storage application

In this paper, a silicon nitride cantilever integrated with silicon heater and piezoelectric sensor has been firstly developed to improve the uniformity of the initial bending and the mechanical stability of the cantilever array for thermo-piezoelectric SPM (scanning probe microscopy) -based data storages. This nitride cantilever shows thickness uniformity less than 2%. Data bits of 40 nm in diameter were recorded on PMMA film. The sensitivity of the piezoelectric sensor was 0.615 fC/nm after poling the PZT layer implying that indentations less than 20 nm in depth can be detected. For high speed operation, 128 × 128 probe array was developed.