Micro-cantilevers for non-destructive characterization of nanograss uniformity

Author

Petersen, Dirch H. ; Wang, Fei ; Olesen, Mikkel B. ; Wierzbicki, Rafal ; Schmidt, Michael S. ; Nielsen, Peter F. ; Bøggild, Peter ; Hansen, Ole ; Mølhave, Kristian

Author_Institution

DTU Nanotech, Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

1060

Lastpage

1063

Abstract

We demonstrate an application of three-way flexible micro four-point probes for indirect uniformity characterization of surface morphology. The mean sheet conductance of a quasi-planar 3D nanostructured surface is highly dependent on the surface morphology, and thus accurate sheet conductance measurements may be useful for process uniformity characterization. The method is applied for characterization of TiW coated nanograss uniformity. Three-way flexible L-shaped cantilever electrodes are used to avoid damage to the fragile surface, and a relative standard deviation on measurement repeatability of 0.12 % is obtained with a measurement yield of 97%. Finally, variations in measured sheet conductance are correlated to the surface morphology as characterized by electron microscopy.

Keywords

cantilevers; electric admittance measurement; electrical conductivity; electrodes; metallic thin films; micromechanical devices; nanostructured materials; nondestructive testing; scanning electron microscopy; surface morphology; titanium alloys; tungsten alloys; TiW; electron microscopy; indirect uniformity characterization; mean sheet conductance; microcantilevers; nanograss uniformity; nondestructive characterization; quasi-planar 3D nanostructured surface; sheet conductance measurements; surface morphology; thin films; three-way flexible L-shaped cantilever electrodes; three-way flexible microfour-point probes; Contacts; Electrodes; Morphology; Probes; Sensitivity; Surface morphology; Surface treatment; Four-point probe; Nanograss; Non-destructive contact; Static contact; Surface morphology; Tribology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969173

Filename

5969173