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Journal ArticleDOI

Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical Characterization of Silicon Microcantilever Heaters

04 Dec 2006-IEEE\/ASME Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.)-Vol. 15, Iss: 6, pp 1644-1655
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe detailed mechanical, electrical, and thermal characterization and calibration of AFM cantilevers having integrated solid-state heaters, which have been applied to metrology, thermophysical property measurements, and nanoscale manufacturing.
Abstract: Silicon atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers having integrated solid-state heaters were originally developed for application to data storage, but have since been applied to metrology, thermophysical property measurements, and nanoscale manufacturing. These applications beyond data storage have strict requirements for mechanical characterization and precise temperature calibration of the cantilever. This paper describes detailed mechanical, electrical, and thermal characterization and calibration of AFM cantilevers having integrated solid-state heaters. Analysis of the cantilever response to electrical excitation in both time and frequency domains aids in resolving heat transfer mechanisms in the cantilever. Raman spectroscopy provides local temperature measurement along the cantilever with resolution near 1 mum and 5degC and also provides local surface stress measurements. Observation of the cantilever mechanical thermal noise spectrum at room temperature and while heated provides insight into cantilever mechanical behavior and compares well with finite-element analysis. The characterization and calibration methodology reported here expands the use of heated AFM cantilevers, particularly the uses for nanomanufacturing and sensing
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the first experimental study of thermal transport at the nanoscale is reported in the case of a point-like heat source, providing a quantitative description of the transition between the ballistic and diffusive regimes.
Abstract: According to Fourier theory, thermal transport is a diffusive process. However, this cannot be the case at length scales smaller than the mean free path of the energy carriers. The first experimental study of thermal transport at the nanoscale is now reported in the case of a point-like heat source, providing a quantitative description of the transition between the ballistic and diffusive regimes.

330 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work carries out detailed experimental and theoretical studies to reveal all of the essential attributes of the underlying thermophysical phenomena and demonstrates use of the purified arrays in transistors that achieve mobilities exceeding 1,000 cm(2) V(-1) s (-1) and on/off switching ratios of ∼10,000 with current outputs in the milliamp range.
Abstract: Thermocapillary effects allow for the selective removal of metallic nanotubes from semiconducting ones, which occurs directly on a wafer substrate.

189 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The use of a silicon probe for LTA enables bulk fabrication, parallelization for high-throughput analysis, and fabrication of a sharp tip capable of nanoscale spatial resolution.
Abstract: This article describes the use of heated silicon atomic force microscopy probes to perform local thermal analysis (LTA) of a thin film of polystyrene. The experiments measure film softening behavior with 100nm spatial resolution, whereas previous research on LTA used probes that had a resolution near 10μm, which was too large to investigate some types of features. This article demonstrates four methods by which heated silicon probes can perform thermal analysis with nanoscale spatial resolution. The polystyrene softening temperature measured from nanoscale LTA techniques is 120°C, compared to 100°C, measured with bulk ellipsometry. The discrepancy is attributed to the thermal contact resistance at the end of the silicon probe tip, on the order of 107K∕W, which modulates heat flow between the tip and sample and governs the fundamental limits of this technique. The use of a silicon probe for LTA enables bulk fabrication, parallelization for high-throughput analysis, and fabrication of a sharp tip capable of...

141 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used diffraction of coherent soft x-ray pulses for very high resolution of thermally-induced surface distortion, as well as femtosecond time resolution of dynamics.
Abstract: Heat dissipation from a nanoscale hot-spot is expected to be non-diffusive when a hot-spot is smaller than the phonon mean free path of the substrate. Our technique of observing diffraction of coherent soft x-ray pulses allows for very high resolution (~pm) of thermally-induced surface distortion, as well as femtosecond time resolution of dynamics. We successfully model our experimental results with a diffusive transport model that is modified to include an additional boundary resistance. These results confirm the importance of considering ballistic transport away from a nanoscale heat source, and identify a means of correctly accounting for this ballistic transport.

117 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
26 May 2008-Sensors
TL;DR: The effects of various force fields such as those induced by mass loading, residual stress, internal friction of the material, and other changes in the mechanical properties of the microcantilevers are discussed to present useful measurements of the associated elastic properties.
Abstract: Microcantilevers were first introduced as imaging probes in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) due to their extremely high sensitivity in measuring surface forces The versatility of these probes, however, allows the sensing and measurement of a host of mechanical properties of various materials Sensor parameters such as resonance frequency, quality factor, amplitude of vibration and bending due to a differential stress can all be simultaneously determined for a cantilever When measuring the mechanical properties of materials, identifying and discerning the most influential parameters responsible for the observed changes in the cantilever response are important We will, therefore, discuss the effects of various force fields such as those induced by mass loading, residual stress, internal friction of the material, and other changes in the mechanical properties of the microcantilevers Methods to measure variations in temperature, pressure, or molecular adsorption of water molecules are also discussed Often these effects occur simultaneously, increasing the number of parameters that need to be concurrently measured to ensure the reliability of the sensors We therefore systematically investigate the geometric and environmental effects on cantilever measurements including the chemical nature of the underlying interactions To address the geometric effects we have considered cantilevers with a rectangular or circular cross section The chemical nature is addressed by using cantilevers fabricated with metals and/or dielectrics Selective chemical etching, swelling or changes in Young's modulus of the surface were investigated by means of polymeric and inorganic coatings Finally to address the effect of the environment in which the cantilever operates, the Knudsen number was determined to characterize the molecule-cantilever collisions Also bimaterial cantilevers with high thermal sensitivity were used to discern the effect of temperature variations When appropriate, we use continuum mechanics, which is justified according to the ratio between the cantilever thickness and the grain size of the materials We will also address other potential applications such as the ageing process of nuclear materials, building materials, and optical fibers, which can be investigated by monitoring their mechanical changes with time In summary, by virtue of the dynamic response of a miniaturized cantilever shaped material, we present useful measurements of the associated elastic properties

102 citations


Cites background or methods from "Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical..."

  • ...Uncooled Infrared (IR) radiation detector were then designed at room temperature [134, 108, 135, 93]....

    [...]

  • ..., the resonance frequency f and the quality factor Q of the resonance peak, can be obtained from the vibrational noise spectrum [93] obtained with a spectrum analyzer....

    [...]

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The atomic force microscope as mentioned in this paper is a combination of the principles of the scanning tunneling microscope and the stylus profilometer, which was proposed as a method to measure forces as small as 10-18 N. As one application for this concept, they introduce a new type of microscope capable of investigating surfaces of insulators on an atomic scale.
Abstract: The scanning tunneling microscope is proposed as a method to measure forces as small as 10-18 N. As one application for this concept, we introduce a new type of microscope capable of investigating surfaces of insulators on an atomic scale. The atomic force microscope is a combination of the principles of the scanning tunneling microscope and the stylus profilometer. It incorporates a probe that does not damage the surface. Our preliminary results in air demonstrate a lateral resolution of 30 A and a vertical resolution less than 1 A.

12,344 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a simple, nondestructive procedure for measuring the force constant, resonant frequency, and quality factor of an AFM cantilever spring and the effective radius of curvature of an AU tip.
Abstract: Images and force measurements taken by an atomic‐force microscope (AFM) depend greatly on the properties of the spring and tip used to probe the sample’s surface. In this article, we describe a simple, nondestructive procedure for measuring the force constant, resonant frequency, and quality factor of an AFM cantilever spring and the effective radius of curvature of an AFM tip. Our procedure uses the AFM itself and does not require additional equipment.

3,975 citations


"Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical..." refers background in this paper

  • ...equipartition theorem and relates thermal energy to the elastic potential energy of the cantilever [46]....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the theoretical background of Raman spectroscopy, with special attention to its sensitivity for mechanical stress, is discussed, and practical information is given for the application of this technique to stress measurements in silicon integrated circuits.
Abstract: Local mechanical stress is currently an important topic of concern in microelectronics processing. A technique that has become increasingly popular for local mechanical stress measurements is micro-Raman spectroscopy. In this paper, the theoretical background of Raman spectroscopy, with special attention to its sensitivity for mechanical stress, is discussed, and practical information is given for the application of this technique to stress measurements in silicon integrated circuits. An overview is given of some important applications of the technique, illustrated with examples from the literature: the first studies of the influence of external stress on the Si Raman modes are reviewed; the application of this technique to measure stress in silicon-on-insulator films is discussed; results of measurements of local stress in isolation structures and trenches are reviewed; and the use of micro-Raman spectroscopy to obtain more information on stress in metals, by measuring the stress in the surrounding Si substrate is explained.

923 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...stress tensor for any silicon material [42]–[44]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a new scanning-probe-based data-storage concept called the "millipede" is presented, which combines ultrahigh density, terabit capacity, small form factor, and high data rate.
Abstract: Present a new scanning-probe-based data-storage concept called the "millipede" that combines ultrahigh density, terabit capacity, small form factor, and high data rate. Ultrahigh storage density has been demonstrated by a new thermomechanical local-probe technique to store, read back, and erase data in very thin polymer films. With this new technique, nanometer-sized bit indentations and pitch sizes have been made by a single cantilever/tip into thin polymer layers, resulting in a data storage densities of up to 1 Tb/in/sup 2/. High data rates are achieved by parallel operation of large two-dimensional (2-D) atomic force microscope (AFM) arrays that have been batch-fabricated by silicon surface-micromachining techniques. The very large-scale integration (VLSI) of micro/nanomechanical devices (cantilevers/tips) on a single chip leads to the largest and densest 2-D array of 32/spl times/32 (1024) AFM cantilevers with integrated write/read/erase storage functionality ever built. Time-multiplexed electronics control the functional storage cycles for parallel operation of the millipede array chip. Initial areal densities of 100-200 Gb/in/sup 2/ have been achieved with the 32/spl times/32 array chip.

800 citations


"Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical..." refers background in this paper

  • ...ficiently long time to deform the polymer and to form nanoscale data bit indents [3], [5]....

    [...]

  • ...AFM cantilevers having integrated solid-state heating elements were originally designed for data storage [2], [3] and have enabled progress on highly parallel AFM and compact data storage [4]....

    [...]

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, a new technology makes it possible to examine hair in contact with air and to study the interactions of cationic polymers and hair, and to examine the interaction of hair and air.
Abstract: A new technology makes it possible to examine hair in contact with air and to study the interactions of cationic polymers and hair

764 citations