Title :
An integrated lateral tunneling unit
Author :
Kobayashi, Dai ; Hirano, Toshiki ; Furuhata, Tomotake ; Fujita, Hiroyuki
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Ind. Sci., Tokyo Univ., Japan
Abstract :
A micromachined device developed to perform displacement-controlled tunneling is described. Its performance was experimentally confirmed. The lateral tunneling unit (LTU), composed of a comb-drive actuator, a tunneling tip, and an opposing wall integrated on the same wafer was fabricated using surface micromachining with only one photomask. Integration of the tip and its opposing wall eliminated coarse positioning of the specimen, and realized a fully micromachined tunneling unit. The lateral configuration is easy to fabricate and suitable for integrating other structures such as an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. The LTU can be used as an extremely sensitive position detector. Possible applications, such as an accelerometer and an integrated AFM/LTU chip, are discussed
Keywords :
atomic force microscopy; electric actuators; mechatronics; micromechanical devices; photolithography; MEMS; atomic force microscope; comb-drive actuator; displacement-controlled tunneling; fabrication; integrated lateral tunneling unit; lateral configuration; microelectromechanical systems; micromachined device; micromachined tunneling unit; one photomask; opposing wall; same wafer; sensitive position detector; surface micromachining; tip-wall integration; tunneling tip; Atom optics; Atomic force microscopy; Electrostatic actuators; Humans; Hydraulic actuators; Microactuators; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Scanning probe microscopy; Tunneling;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 1992, MEMS '92, Proceedings. An Investigation of Micro Structures, Sensors, Actuators, Machines and Robot. IEEE
Conference_Location :
Travemunde
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-0497-7
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.1992.187720
