Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Nano Analytik Gmbh

Teodor Gotszalk

Ivo Rangelow

Ehrenfried Zschech

Piotr Grabiec

Tzvetan Ivanov

Burkhard Volland

Miroslaw Woszczyna

Jerzy Mielczarski

Yanko Sarov

Michael Hecker

Pawel Janus

Ivo W Rangelow

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for investigating surface properties of different materials, which make it possible to carry out atomic force microscopy with a simplified and faster shear force method. The apparatus according to the invention is characterized by perpendicular orientation of the measuring tip of a self-actuated cantilever with respect to the surface of the sample. A piezoresistive sensor and a bimorph actuator are preferably DC-isolated. The measuring tip is in the form of a carbon nanotube, in particular. A plurality of cantilevers can be arranged in the form of a cantilever array which is characterized by a comb-like arrangement of individual pre-bent cantilevers. The method according to the invention is distinguished by a fast feedback signal on account of the distance between the measuring tip and the surface to be investigated being regulated using the change in a DC signal which supplies the actuator.

Apparatus and method for investigating surface properties of different materials

By forming an appropriate material layer, such as a metal-containing material, on a appropriate substrate and patterning the material layer to obtain a cantilever portion and a tip portion, a specifically designed nano-probe may be provided. In some illustrative aspects, additionally, a three-dimensional template structure may be provided prior to the deposition of the probe material, thereby enabling the definition of sophisticated tip portions on the basis of lithography, wherein, alternatively or additionally, other material removal processes with high spatial resolution, such as FIB techniques, may be used for defining nano-probes, which may be used for electric interaction, highly resolved temperature measurements and the like. Thus, sophisticated measurement techniques may be established for advanced thermal scanning, strain measurement techniques and the like, in which a thermal and/or electrical interaction with the surface under consideration is required. These techniques may be advantageously used for failure localization and local analysis during the fabrication of advanced integrated circuits.

Nanoprobe tip for advanced scanning probe microscopy comprising a layered probe material patterned by lithography and/or FIB techniques

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Wroclaw, Poland

Teodor Gotszalk