This paper introduces a new methodology for the fabrication of strain-sensor elements for MEMS and NEMS applications based on the tunneling effect in nano-granular metals. The strain-sensor elements are prepared by the maskless lithography technique of focused electron-beam-induced deposition (FEBID) employing the precursor trimethylmethylcyclopentadienyl platinum [MeCpPt(Me)(3)]. We use a cant...

Scanning probe lithography (SPL) is a promising candidate approach for desktop nanofabrication, but trade-offs in throughput, cost, and resolution have limited its application. The recent development of cantilever-free scanning probe arrays has allowed researchers to define nanoscale patterns in a low-cost and high-resolution format, but with the limitation that these are duplication tools wher...

Amajor limitation for future nanotechnology, particularly for bottom-up manufacturing is the non-availability of 2-dimensional massively parallel probe arrays. Scanning proximity probes are uniquely powerful tools for analysis, manipulation and bottom-up synthesis: they are capable of addressing and engineering surfaces at the atomic level and are the key to unlocking the full potential of Nano...

A new and simple method for nanostructuring using conventional photolithography and layer expansion or pattern-size reduction technique is presented, which can further be applied for the fabrication of different nanostructures and nano-devices. The method is based on the conversion of a photolithographically patterned metal layer to a metal-oxide mask with improved pattern-size resolution using...

This paper developed an active scanning probe array. The probe array consists of 16×2 probes thermally actuating and sensing. The 32 probes are integrated with Ti/Pt temperature sensors and bimorph thermal actuators. Each probe is a Si3N4 cantilever equipped with a sharp nano scale pyramid tip at its free end. When one of the probes is actuated, its neighboring probes can provide temperature se...

In this work the effect of substrate roughness on the adhesion of gecko foot-hair like nano structures as opposed to solid elastic materials is described and models of both synthetic nano-hairs and hair-substrate interaction are developed. First, by combining linear beam theory and geometric constraints, a nonlinear elastic model for the hair is derived. Then it is shown how for a given random ...

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a versatile, high-resolution tool used to characterize the topography and material properties of a large variety of specimens at nano-scale. The interaction of the micro-cantilever tip with the specimen causes cantilever deflections that are measured by an optical sensing mechanism and subsequently utilized to construct the sample topography. Recent years ha...

the resonant frequency and sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (afm) cantilever with assembled cantilever probe (acp) have been analyzed and a closed-form expression for the sensitivity of vibration modes has been obtained. the proposed acp comprises an inclined cantilever and extension, and a tip located at the free end of the extension, which makes the afm capable of topography at sidew...

the presence of van der waals (vdw) force can lead to mechanical instability in freestanding nano-scale actuators. most of the previous researches in this area have exclusively focused on modeling the instability in actuators with one actuating components. while, less attention has been paid to actuators consist of two actuating components. herein, the effect of the vdw force on the instability...