Micro cantilever probe array integrated with Piezoresistive sensor

A micro cantilever-tip silicon probe-array with integrated electro-thermal nano-tip and piezoresistive sensor has been presented for NEMS high-density data storage. After its fundamental working principle has been illustrated, such a 1 x 10 probe-array has been designed. Both analysis and FEM simulation are used for modeling and designing with their results agreeing well with tolerance of only 5%. The device has been fabricated with silicon bulk micromachining technologies. The relationship between the heating resistance and tip temperature was experimentally obtained and fitted with second order polynomial function. Based on those, the microsecond-instantaneous electro-thermal performance of the device has been gained and the tested results were in agreement with the simulated ones. Under the 4 V pulse power and 3 mus heating time, the tested results were indicative of the 463.15 K temperature on the tip, the 6.2 mus decreasing-temperature constant of the heating resistor and the nearly 100 KHz reading-writing velocity. The sensitivity of piezoresistivity was up to 5.4 x 10(4) under the force of 2 x 10(-7) N, which was sufficient to read out the data from the polymer indent. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.