Forced oscillation and higher harmonic detection in an integrated CMOS-MEMS scanning probe microscope

Abstract

We present the first imaging results obtained with a MEMS scanning probe microscope (SPM) that does not require external scanning hardware, and uses forced oscillation and higher-harmonic detection to eliminate thermal coupling. This SPM supports multiple modes of operation including contact AFM (atomic force microscopy), intermittent-contact AFM, and thermal profiling. The focus of this paper is on the intermittent-contact mode, in which we are interested in measuring topology while suppressing thermal effects. The method has been implemented with three SPM-on-a-chip designs, and consistently improves resolution.