Method of producing micromechanical sensors for the AFM/STM profilometry and micromechanical AFM/STM sensor head.

摘要

A method is described for producing micromechanical sensors for the AFM/STM profilometry, which consist of a cantilever beam with at least one tip at its end and a mounting block at the opposite, comprising: 1. bilaterally coating a wafer substrate with an insulating layer; 2. producing a mask in the insulating layer on the top side of the wafer for future trench or groove etching, and a mask in the insulating layer on the bottom side of the wafer, using a first photolithographic step and reactive ion etching: 3. producing a trench or a groove in the wafer substrate by reactive ion or anisotropic wet etching, respectively, followed by removing the insulating layer from the top side by etching: 4. coating the surface of the wafer and the trench or groove with the desired cantilever beam and tip material, respectively; 5. baring cantilever beam and tip in a second photolithographic step and dry or wet etching steps, respectively; and 6. removing the supporting wafer material from the bottom side by anisotropic wet etching through the bottom side mask. In a preferred embodiment the area on the top side of the cantilever beam corresponding to the remaining piece of wafer on the bottom side is bonded with a block of glass via 'mallory' bonding at about 300 DEG C and 1000 V. Furthermore, the surface of the wafer substrate and the trench can be coated in a first step with a material with nonconformal step coverage, and in a second step with a material with conformal step coverage. The cantilever beam and the tip are bared in the layer with conformal step coverage, and the supporting wafer and the layer with nonconformal step coverage are removed by selective etching through the bottom side mask. The invention also comprises a micromechanical sensor for AFM/STM profilometry which is micromechanically manufactured from one piece of material.