TY - JOUR
T1 - Microprobe array with electrical interconnection for thermal imaging and data storage
AU - Lee, Dong Weon
AU - Ono, Takahito
AU - Abe, Takashi
AU - Esashi, Masayoshi
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received March 5, 2001; revised September 15, 2001. This work was supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Ministry of Education, Scientific, Sports, and Culture of Japan (12555015). Subject Editor A. J. Ricco. D.-W. Lee and T. Ono are with the Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan (e-mail: DLE@zurich.ibm.com). T. Abe is with the Venture Business Laboratory, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan. M. Esashi is with the New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan. Publisher Item Identifier S 1057-7157(02)04986-7.
PY - 2002/6
Y1 - 2002/6
N2 - In this work, new novel methods for fabricating a thermal probe array with 32 × 32 probes on one chip are proposed. It consists of silicon micromachined probe, AIN actuator, pyramidal SiO2 tip on which the nano-scale metal-metal junction is formed using a self-alignment technique. The nano-junction can be used as a thermocouple to measure a local temperature on a sample surface or as a nano-heater to make a local deformation on a media. In self-alignment process, a metal layer (Pt/Ni) is deposited on the inside of SiO2 hollow tip fabricated by low temperature (950 °C) oxidation of silicon etch pit. This low temperature oxidation results in a smaller oxide thickness at the tip apex than other flat area. Therefore, after selective etching the SiO2 in buffered HF, a small hole surrounding the Pt/Ti tip apex can be created. Another metal (Ni) is deposited outside the Pt/Ti tip to make the nano-junction. For electrical interconnection between the thermal probe and an IC chip, a hole array with 30 μm of a hole diameter is made by dry etching through the 150-μm-thick Pyrex glass, and then Ni is electroplated into the through etched-hole. Finally the Pyrex glass plate was anodically bonded to the probe array. Using the fabricated thermal probe, temperature distribution is measured on a prepared sample surface and the local heating capability of the thermal probe is confirmed. Preliminary experiments for data writing and reading are performed on a phase change medium.
AB - In this work, new novel methods for fabricating a thermal probe array with 32 × 32 probes on one chip are proposed. It consists of silicon micromachined probe, AIN actuator, pyramidal SiO2 tip on which the nano-scale metal-metal junction is formed using a self-alignment technique. The nano-junction can be used as a thermocouple to measure a local temperature on a sample surface or as a nano-heater to make a local deformation on a media. In self-alignment process, a metal layer (Pt/Ni) is deposited on the inside of SiO2 hollow tip fabricated by low temperature (950 °C) oxidation of silicon etch pit. This low temperature oxidation results in a smaller oxide thickness at the tip apex than other flat area. Therefore, after selective etching the SiO2 in buffered HF, a small hole surrounding the Pt/Ti tip apex can be created. Another metal (Ni) is deposited outside the Pt/Ti tip to make the nano-junction. For electrical interconnection between the thermal probe and an IC chip, a hole array with 30 μm of a hole diameter is made by dry etching through the 150-μm-thick Pyrex glass, and then Ni is electroplated into the through etched-hole. Finally the Pyrex glass plate was anodically bonded to the probe array. Using the fabricated thermal probe, temperature distribution is measured on a prepared sample surface and the local heating capability of the thermal probe is confirmed. Preliminary experiments for data writing and reading are performed on a phase change medium.
KW - Data storage
KW - Electrical interconnection
KW - Microprobe
KW - Nano-heater
KW - Thermal imaging
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U2 - 10.1109/JMEMS.2002.1007400
DO - 10.1109/JMEMS.2002.1007400
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036601154
VL - 11
SP - 215
EP - 221
JO - Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
JF - Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
SN - 1057-7157
IS - 3
ER -