AVS 54th International Symposium
    MEMS and NEMS Tuesday Sessions
       Session MN-TuP

Paper MN-TuP7
Fabrication of Body Insulated Conductive Cantilever with Metalic Nano Tip

Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 6:00 pm, Room 4C

Session: MEMS and NEMS Poster Session
Presenter: S.H. Park, Myongji University, Korea
Authors: S.H. Park, Myongji University, Korea
S.H. Kim, Korea Electronics Technology Institute
C.J. Kang, Myongji University, Korea
Y.J. Choi, Myongji University, Korea
J.W. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
Y.S. Kim, Myongji University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email

Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) can be used to analyze specimens at sub-micrometer scale either by profiling their surface morphology or by measuring their electrical property. SPM has become one of the essential research tools in the field of biology because of its lateral resolution superior to optical microscopy. For the application to biological samples, the SPM probe should be occasionally immersed into an aqueous environment in the form of buffer solution. If we want to get electrical information of the sample in the aqueous environment with commercially available surface conductive cantilevers, electrical leakage from the cantilever body to the solution takes place, which results in poor image resolution. In this study, we fabricated body insulated conductive cantilever in order to avoid leakage current through cantilever surface. Electron Beam Induced Deposition (EBID) technique was used to fabricate well localized conductive nano probe. By optimizing the EBID tip growth condition, we could acquire probe whose base diameter and effective length are below 300nm and a few µm. Tungsten hexacarbonyl [W(CO)6] is a popular precursor material used in placing conductive deposits with the EBID method. We analyzed the constituents of fabricated nano probe by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDXS) and microscopic Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (µ-FTIR) which detects element species and chemical bond. We also examined resolution of the fabricated nano probe compared with the conventional metal probe by recording topographic images and electrostatic force images (EFM) of gold electrodes simultaneously. When measuring an electric signal in buffer solution, we could reduce a leakage electric current. This result suggests the possibility of direct fabrication of high aspect ratio and conducting nano SPM probe on the body insulated conductive cantilever.