6-MHZ 2-N M PIEZORESISTIVE ATOMIC-FORCE-MICROSCOPE CANTILEVERS WITH INCISIVE TIPS/

Piezoresistive atomic-force-microscope (AFM) cantilevers with lengths of 10 mu m, displacement sensitivities of (Delta R/R)/Angstrom = 1.1 x 10(-5), displacement resolutions of 2 x 10(-3) Angstrom/root Hz mecha nical response times of less than 90 ns, and stiffnesses of 2 N/m have been fabricated from a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer using a novel frontside-only release process, To reduce mass, the cantilevers utili ze novel inplane crystallographically defined silicon variable aspect- ratio (INCISIVE) tips with radius of curvature of 10 Angstrom. The can tilevers have been used in an experimental AFM data-storage system to read back data with an areal density of 10 Gb/cm(2), Four-legged canti levers with both imaging and thermomechanical surface modification cap abilities have been used to write 2-Gb/cm(2) data at 50 kb/s on a spin ning polycarbonate sample and to subsequently read the data. AFM imagi ng has been successfully demonstrated with the cantilevers. Some canti lever designs have sufficient displacement resolution to detect their own mechanical-thermal noise in air, The INCISIVE tips also have appli cations to other types of sensors.