Abstract
This work presents CMOS micromachined dielectric cantilevers with integrated sharp tips for surface temperature measurement. The integrated cantilever can perform electrothermal actuation and piezoresistive sensing for maintaining a proper tip-sample contact. For a cantilever 280 νm long, the measured thermoelectric power from the aluminum/polysilicon thermocouple is 22.6 0.36 νV °C -1 , the measured time constant is 796 νs, and the drift due to thermal actuation is 0.15 0.057 νV °C -1 . The measured displacement by thermal actuation is 2.2 νm at 17.8 mW and the measured thermal time constant is 79.6 νs. The measured piezoresistive sensitivity and pre-amp noise are 0.48 mV νm -1 and 0.7 νV Hz -1/2 , respectively, producing an equivalent input-referred noise displacement of 1.45 nm Hz -1/2 . © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.