Electrothermally driven high-frequency piezoresistive SiC cantilevers for dynamic atomic force microscopy

R. Boubekri (1) , E. Cambril (1) , L. Couraud (1) , L. Bernardi (1) , A. Madouri (1) , M. Portail (2) , T. Chassagne (3) , C. Moisson (1) , M. Zielinski (1) , Sai Jiao (4) , Jean-François Michaud (4) , Daniel Alquier (4) , J. Bouloc (5) , Laurent Nony (5) , F. Bocquet (5) , C. Loppacher (5) , David Martrou (6) , Sebastien Gauthier (6)

1 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures
2 CRHEA - Centre de recherche sur l'hétéroepitaxie et ses applications
3 Technolac - Savoie Technolac
4 GREMAN - UMR 7347 - GREMAN (matériaux, microélectronique, acoustique et nanotechnologies)
5 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence
6 CEMES-GNS - Groupe NanoSciences

Cantilevers with resonance frequency ranging from 1 MHz to 100 MHz have been developed for dynamic atomic force microscopy. These sensors are fabricated from 3C-SiC epilayers grown on Si(100) substrates by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. They use an on-chip method both for driving and sensing the displacement of the cantilever. A first gold metallic loop deposited on top of the cantilever is used to drive its oscillation by electrothermal actuation. The sensing of this oscillation is performed by monitoring the resistance of a second Au loop. This metallic piezoresistive detection method has distinct advantages relative to more common semiconductor-based schemes. The optimization, design, fabrication, and characteristics of these cantilevers are discussed.

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

R. Boubekri, E. Cambril, L. Couraud, L. Bernardi, A. Madouri, et al.. Electrothermally driven high-frequency piezoresistive SiC cantilevers for dynamic atomic force microscopy. Journal of Applied Physics, 2014, 116, pp.054304. ⟨10.1063/1.4891833⟩. ⟨hal-01715334⟩