Patent ID: 8828243

Claim:
A method of fabricating a probe assembly, comprising the steps of: forming a dielectric layer on both sides of two, double side polished, monocrystalline silicon wafers with known crystal plane orientation, to form a first probe wafer silicon substrate and a second, support wafer silicon substrate, developing a cantilever pattern in a first dielectric layer on one side of the first probe wafer silicon substrate with known orientation relative to the crystal orientation of the silicon substrate; bonding the first and second silicon substrates together across the first dielectric layer with the cantilever pattern bonded between the first and second silicon substrates, followed by the subsequent steps of: developing a support structure in a second dielectric layer on the second support substrate selected from the exposed side of second silicon substrate; separating from the support structure a distal end of a cantilever developed according to the cantilever pattern and supported on the support structure at a proximal end of the cantilever; and forming in the probe substrate a three sided silicon tip projecting from a principal surface of the probe substrate in a direction up and away from the support substrate at a distal end of the cantilever wherein the tip is formed solely as a result of the crystal orientations and cantilever pattern alignment.