1.  Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and methods for forming thin-film microcantilevers for use in atomic force microscopes and other microscope systems. 
2.  Prior Art
An atomic force microscope (AFM) scans over the surface of a sample in two different modes of operation.  In one mode, the contacting mode, a sharp tip is mounted on the end of a cantilever and the tip rides on the surface of a sample with an extremely light tracking force, on the order of 10.sup.-5 to 10.sup.-10 N. In the contacting mode of operation, profiles of the surface topology are obtained with extremely high resolution.  Images showing the position of individual atoms are routinely obtained.  In the other mode, the tip is held a short distance, on the order of 5 to 500 Angstroms, from the surface of a sample and is deflected by various forces between the sample and the tip, such forces include electrostatic, magnetic, and van der Waals forces. 
Several methods of detecting the deflection of the cantilever are available which have subangstrom sensitivity, including vacuum tunneling, optical interferometry, optical beam deflection, and capacitive techniques.  However, fabrication of a readily reproducible cantilever stylus assembly has been a limiting factor on use of AFM and other forms of microscopy such as scanning tunneling microscopes. 
The technical requirements for a cantilever stylus assembly, which includes a cantilever arm and a protruding tip, include a number of different factors.  A low force constant for the cantilever is desirable so that reasonable values of deflection are obtained with relatively small deflection forces.  Typical values are 0.01-1000N/m. A mechanical resonant frequency for the cantilever which is greater than 10 kHz ia desirable to increase image tracking speed and to reduce sensitivity to ambient vibrations.  Low force constants and high resonant frequencies are obtained by minimizing the mass of the cantilever and the tip. 
When optical beam deflection is used to detect deflection of the cantilever, deflection sensitivity is inversely proportional to the length of the cantilever.  Therefore a cantilever length of less than 1 mm is desirable. 
For certain types of deflection sensing, a high mechanical Q is desirable and is achieved by using amorphous or single crystal thin films for fabrication of the cantilever. 
In many applications, it is desirable that the cantilever flex in only one direction and have high lateral stiffness.  This can be obtained by using a geometry such as V-shape which has two arms obliquely extending and meeting at a point at which the tip is mounted. 
It is often required that a conductive electrode or reflective spot be located on the side of the cantilever opposite the tip.  This is obtained by fabricating the cantilever from metal or depositing a conductive material on certain portions of the cantilever to serve as a conductor or reflector. 
Finally, a sharp tip, that is, a protruding tip with a tip radius less than 500 Angstroms and which may terminate in a single atom, is desired to provide good lateral resolution.  This requirement has traditionally been one of the most difficult to obtain in a reproducible manner.  Typically, in the prior art, tips were made by hand using fabrication and bonding techniques which were time consuming and which produced non-uniformly performing tips. 
In the prior art, cantilever arms were constructed by hand from fine tungsten wires.  One way of obtaining a tip portion on such an arm was to etch the wire to a point and then bend the point to perpendicularly extend from the wire.  Another way to obtain a tip was to glue a tiny diamond fragment in place at the end of a cantilever.  Prior art cantilevers fabricated using photolithographic techniques did not have integrally-formed sharp protruding tips.  For these cantilevers a rather dull tip was effectively obtained by using a corner of the microfabricated cantilever itself as a tip.  Alternatively, a diamond fragment was glued by hand to the end of a microfabricated cantilever.  The cantilever assembly of an AFM is relatively fragile and is virtually impossible to clean when it is contaminated by material from the surface being scanned so that frequent replacement is required. 
Currently, technologists are attempting to microfabricate STMs and AFMs using microfabrication techniques which are compatible with standard fabrication processes used in the silicon semiconductor integrated circuit industry.  Their goal is to mass-produce very precise, very reliable sensors which have minimal thermal drift, signal loss, and low noise characteristics by taking advantage of the inherent low mass, high resonant frequencies, and low thermal drift characteristics of microfabricated devices.  In addition, these microfabricated sensors can be integrally combined with electronic circuitry fabricated with the same processes.