Micromachined scanning probes, Fabrications and applications

Masayoshi Esashi, Takahito Ono

New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Tohoku University
Aza-Aoba 01, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan

Silicon micromachining technology enables to realize miniaturized systems in which many components, such as mechanical elements, optics, electronics are integrated. Micro probes for proximity scanning microscope are one of the miniaturized elements fabricated by silicon micromachining. The scaled-down makes the sensing elements sensitive. To achieve the advanced sensing and processing in a nanometer scale, fabrication techniques based on silicon micromachining are newly developed. An tiny aperture with a diameter of 20 nm for near-field scanning optical microscope, an ultra-thin cantilever scaled down to 20 nm thickness with a high quality factor for ultra-sensitive sensing, a nano-heater integrated multi-probe array for high density data storage are successfully fabricated and demonstrated.