Probe suspension mechanism design for nano machining system

A high machining precision is the most important goal for the fabrication of three dimensional nanometer scale structure. The force-based atomic force microscope (AFM) can reach a very high precision in the structure machining, but the machining depth is difficult to predict for different sample material or machining parameters. The nano machining system in this paper adopts traditional displacement-based machining method, aiming at a few hundred nanometers machining depth. The machining tool (a probe) is kept motionless during the structure machining, so the structure size is determined by a high precise x/y/z three degree of freedoms (DOF) stage. A probe suspension with bridge-type amplification mechanism is designed and optimized, through the theoretical analysis and finite element analysis (FEA), the amplification factor, Z-direction stiffness and first natural frequency of the probe suspension are about 5, 5000N/m, 130HZ, respectively.