DIAMOND AFM PROBE ON SAPPHIRE CANTILEVER

MST has developed a technique to fabricate single crystal diamond probes on sapphire cantilever beams. The extreme hardness of diamond offers increased durability and consistency over silicon probes. The sapphire beam with its high modulus provides a sharp resonant frequency peak and is considerably stronger than silicon. A wide range of beam stiffness and resonant frequencies is available as shown in the table below. These probes are ideal for long lifeand hard samples scanning.

The diamond tip is metal bonded to a sapphire cantilever with an optical flat surface for laser reflection. The cantilever is also metal bonded to a sapphire substrate. Dimensions and specifications are listed below.

Each probe includes a TEM micrograph at 60,000X, plus the following measured parameters: cantilever length, stiffness, first and second order resonant frequencies, and tip radius.

Micro Star SD  probes are suitable for resharpening. The tip can be resharpened to the original radius,  if the original diamond tip is broken or worn to a radius of  no more than one micron.

 

PRICES

SD AFM Probe (standard)……………………….…. $750

SD AFM Probe resharpening……………………… $290

 
 

 

   SEM MICROGRAPH
 

 

   SEM MICROGRAPH
 

 

   SEM MICROGRAPH
    TEM MICROGRAPH
 

 

 

    
 

STANDARD DIMENSIONS 

 

DIMENSION

DESCRIPTION 

STANDARD VALUE

L*

CANTILEVER LENGTH

 200 TO 2000΅

C

CANTILEVER WIDTH

 70΅

H*

DIAMOND TIP HEIGHT

 80 TO 100΅

B*

TIP ANGLE 

 28°

A*

TIP ANGLE TO PERPENDICULAR

 12°

D

SUBSTRATE LENGTH

 3.0mm

T

SUBSTRATE THICKNESS

 0.5mm

W

SUBSTRATE WIDTH

 1.5mm

 

OTHER SPECIFICATIONS

   Diamond tip radius*                                <25nm or <10nm (on request)

   Metal bond yield strength                      0.4 GPa (60,000 psi)

   Tip to substrate electric resistance*   50 K Ohms

* These parameters can be modified to suit the application. Most modifications will not alter the price.

 

SOME FREQUENCY AND STIFFNESS VALUES 

CANTILEVER
LENGTH (΅m)

FIRST ORDER
RESONANT FREQUENCY (KHz)

SECOND ORDER
RESONANT FREQUENCY (KHz)

STIFFNESS
N/m

250

813

5,203

20,995

500

226

1,446

2,624

750

105

672

778

1000

60

384

328

1250

40

256

168

1500

28

179

97

1750

20

128

61

2000

15

96

41

 Frequency and stiffness values are approximated. MST supplies the measured values with each probe.

511 FM 3179 - Huntsville TX. 77340 USA
Tel: 936 291 6891 * 800 533 2509 Fax: 936 294 9861