D4.3 - Silicon probing tips coated with protective aluminum oxide thin films for fast tactile cantilever sensors

Event
AMA Conferences 2015
2015-05-19 - 2015-05-21
Nürnberg, Germany
Band
Proceedings SENSOR 2015
Chapter
D4 - New Technologies
Author(s)
H. Wasisto, F. Yu, M. Deeb - TU Braunschweig (Germany), L. Doering, U. Brand - Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig (Germany), A. Bakin, A. Waag, E. Peiner - Laboratory of Emerging Nanometrology, Braunschweig (Germany), S. Völlmeke - CiS Forschungsinstitut für Mikrosensorik und Photovoltaik GmbH, Erfurt (Germany)
Pages
575 - 579
DOI
10.5162/sensor2015/D4.3
ISBN
978-3-9813484-8-4
Price
free

Abstract

Silicon microprobe tips are fabricated and integrated with piezoresistive cantilever sensors for fast surface roughness scanning systems. A combination of wet and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) cryogenic dry etching processes is employed to create high-aspect-ratio tips. For the wear-resistant tip coatings, atomic-layer deposition (ALD) technique is applied to deposit conformal ~14 nm thick aluminum oxide (Al2O3) layers using a binary reaction sequence in low thermal process with precursors of trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and water (H2O). From the preliminary friction and wear data, the developed silicon cantilever sensor has been successfully used in 100 fast scanning measurements along 5-mm-long surface traces on a standard artifact with a speed of 15 mm/s and forces of 60–100 μN. These tactile sensors are targeted for use in high-aspect-ratio microform metrology.

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