Design and control of a single-chip SOI-MEMS atomic force microscope

This paper presents a novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) implementation of an on-chip atomic force microscope (AFM), fabricated using a silicon-on-insulator process. The device features an XY scanner with electrostatic actuators and electrothermal sensors, as well as an integrated silicon microcantilever. A single AlN piezoelectric electrode is used for simultaneous actuation and deflection sensing of the cantilever via a charge sensing technique. With the device being operated in closed loop, the probe scanner is successfully used to obtain 8μm×8μm tapping-mode AFM images of a calibration grating.