A low cost submicron measuring probe

In this paper a new low cost design is presented. The moving element of the probe head consists of the stylus fixed to a diaphragm flexure, made of berillium-copper foil with, a small aluminium enhanced mirrors at the center. The displacement of the probe tip is determined from the displacement and the rotations of the mirrors measured by a modified optical pick-up and by two lasers focused on four quadrant diodes. In order to test probes a calibration system with ~40 nm measuring uncertainty was designed. A high precision three-axis translation stage, with a working range of 100 times 100 times 100 mum, moves the probe stylus and the position of the stage is determined by three mutually-orthogonal plane mirror laser interferometer transducers having 1 nm resolution.