6015.1:
PZT coated Active AFM cantilevers
Abstract
It is sought to develop a new type of piezoelectric thin film coated cantilevers for atomic force microscopy (AFM). The innovation consists in combining processes for ultrasharp tips (R<10 nm) with coatings of strongly piezoelectric Pb(Zr,Ti) thin films. The latter is deposited by in-situ sputtering or by a sol-gel route. Advanced micromachining techniques have to be applied in order to achieve compatible processes for tip fabrication, PZT deposition and electrode patterning. This project is a feasibility study with good prospects for a continuation in order to set-up an industrially exploitable process. The PZT coated AFM cantilevers allow an improvement of AFM operation in two directions. The PZT can be used as actuator to accelerate the scanning speed. In the transducer mode, the PZT coating can serve to control the tip height in the non-contact (resonant) mode, or the tapping mode. Equipped with sensor capacitor and actuator capacitor, a control without interferometric measurement can be built up. This is advantageous in miniaturized devices as needed in UHV instruments, and for AFM arrays.