TY - GEN
T1 - Nano-precision micromachined frequency output profilometer
AU - Abbasalipour, Amin
AU - Mahdavi, Mohammad
AU - Kumar, Varun
AU - Pourkamali, Siavash
AU - Daryadel, Soheil
AU - Minary, Majid
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2017/1/5
Y1 - 2017/1/5
N2 - This work presents a new class of MEMS based frequency output force and displacement probes with sub-nm displacement resolution. The sensor consists of a probe tip attached to a microcantilever coupled to a thermal-piezoresisitve resonator. Application of a displacement to this probe tip causes deflection of the cantilever due to the applied force. Consequently, the force acting on the cantilever is transferred to the piezoresisitve beam, modulating its stiffness and thus the resonance frequency. Such devices can be used as atomic force microscope (AFM) probes or high resolution surface profilometers with fully electrical operation eliminating the bulky and complex optical detectors typically used in such systems. As a proof-of-concept, such a microcantilever coupled to a 2.1MHz thermal-piezoresisitve resonator has been demonstrated with a displacement sensitivity of 1.5Hz/nm. The Allan deviation for such resonators operated as self-sustained oscillators is measured to be 0.1-0.2ppm. On analysis of the measured data, a frequency resolution in the order of 1Hz is expected to be achievable. This, in turn, translates to ∼0.4nm of displacement and ∼11nN of force resolution for such sensors.
AB - This work presents a new class of MEMS based frequency output force and displacement probes with sub-nm displacement resolution. The sensor consists of a probe tip attached to a microcantilever coupled to a thermal-piezoresisitve resonator. Application of a displacement to this probe tip causes deflection of the cantilever due to the applied force. Consequently, the force acting on the cantilever is transferred to the piezoresisitve beam, modulating its stiffness and thus the resonance frequency. Such devices can be used as atomic force microscope (AFM) probes or high resolution surface profilometers with fully electrical operation eliminating the bulky and complex optical detectors typically used in such systems. As a proof-of-concept, such a microcantilever coupled to a 2.1MHz thermal-piezoresisitve resonator has been demonstrated with a displacement sensitivity of 1.5Hz/nm. The Allan deviation for such resonators operated as self-sustained oscillators is measured to be 0.1-0.2ppm. On analysis of the measured data, a frequency resolution in the order of 1Hz is expected to be achievable. This, in turn, translates to ∼0.4nm of displacement and ∼11nN of force resolution for such sensors.
KW - MEMS force Probe
KW - Thermal-Piezoresistive Atomic Force Microscopy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85010931787&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85010931787&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICSENS.2016.7808884
DO - 10.1109/ICSENS.2016.7808884
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85010931787
T3 - Proceedings of IEEE Sensors
BT - IEEE Sensors, SENSORS 2016 - Proceedings
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 15th IEEE Sensors Conference, SENSORS 2016
Y2 - 30 October 2016 through 2 November 2016
ER -