Method of manufacturing an SPM probe with a scanning tip and with an alignment aid located opposite the scanning tip

US8209768B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• NanoWorld AG · CH

Inventors

• Thomas Sulzbach · Cologne, DE
• Oliver Krause · Erlangen, DE
• Mathieu Burri · Court, CH
• Manfred Detterbeck · Wendelstein, DE
• Bernd Irmer · Munich, DE
• Christian Penzkofer · Munich, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 9, 2009
• Grant date: Jun 26, 2012
• Expiry date: Jul 19, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01Q70/08
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method of manufacturing an SPM probe having a support element, a cantilever, and a scanning tip on an underside of the cantilever, and having a mark located on the top side of the cantilever opposite the scanning tip. The mark on the top side of the cantilever is located exactly opposite the scanning tip on the underside of the cantilever. This makes it possible to identify the exact position of the scanning tip in the scanning probe microscope from the upward-pointing top side of the cantilever, which significantly simplifies the alignment of the SPM probe. The support element with the cantilever may be prefabricated conventionally and the scanning tip and the mark are then produced on the cantilever in a self-aligning way by means of a particle-beam-induced material deposition based on a gas-induced process.