We present an automation technique for the growth of electron beam deposited tips on whole wafers of atomic force microscope cantilevers. This technique uses pattern recognition on scanning electron microscope images of successive magnifications to precisely place the tips on the cantilevers. We demonstrate the capabilities of the working system on a four-inch wafer of microfabricated small can...

v-shaped and triangular cantilevers are widely employed in atomic force microscope (afm) imaging techniques due to their stability. for the design of vibration control systems of afm cantilevers which utilize patched piezo actuators, obtaining an accurate system model is indispensable prior to acquiring the information related to natural modes. a general differential quadrature element method (...

Surface effects in ultrathin single-crystal silicon cantilevers of 170 nm thickness, which are optically actuated mainly by the light pressure effect, are investigated under ultrahigh vacuum ~UHV! condition. Annealing the cantilevers at 1000 °C for 30 s in UHV results in an over 1 order of magnitude increase of the quality factor (Q factor!, up to about 2.5310 for cantilevers of 30–90 mm in len...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) is widely used to mechanically measure the folding and unfolding of proteins. However, the temporal resolution of a standard commercial cantilever is 50-1000 μs, masking rapid transitions and short-lived intermediates. Recently, SMFS with 0.7-μs temporal resolution was achieved using an ultrashort (L = 9 μm) cantileve...

We describe an atomic force microscope (AFM) for the characterization of self-sensing tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) cantilevers. Furthermore, we achieve a large scan-range with a nested scanner design of two independent piezo scanners: a small high resolution scanner with a scan range of 5 × 5 × 5 μm(3) is mounted on a large-area scanner with a scan range of 800 × 800 × 35 μm(3). In order to...

Calculation of the resonance frequency of cantilevers fabricated from an elastically anisotropic material requires the use of an effective Young’s modulus. In this paper a technique to determine the appropriate effective Young’s modulus for arbitrary cantilever geometries is introduced. This technique is validated using a combined analytical and finite element simulations (FEM) approach. In add...

We demonstrate continuous label-free detection of two cardiac biomarker proteins (creatin kinase and myoglobin) using an array of microfabricated cantilevers functionalized with covalently anchored anti-creatin kinase and anti-myoglobin antibodies. This method allows biomarker proteins to be detected via measurement of surface stress generated by antigen–antibody molecular recognition. Referenc...

This study presents the deflection, resonant frequency and stress results of rectangular, triangular, and step profile microcantilevers subject to surface stress. These cantilevers can be used as the sensing element in microcantilever biosensors. To increase the overall sensitivity of microcantilever biosensors, both the deflection and the resonant frequency of the cantilever should be increase...

This paper suggests a simple yet efficient experimental method to record the displacement of the shaft in a revolute joint with clearance. Two light and compliant cantilevers have been mounted on the rocker, each being instrumented with two strain gauges which can measure bending. These cantilevers are mounted in an orthogonal fashion, near the axis of the revolute joint, each touching the shaf...

In this paper, we show how surface-micromachined buckled cantilevers can be used to construct out-of-plane structures. We include the relevant theory necessary to predict the height and angle of plates attached to buckled cantilevers, as well as the mechanical stresses involved in assembly. These platforms can be assembled to any angle between 0◦ and 90◦ with respect to the substrate by changin...