The Novolever: A new cantilever for scanning force microscopy microfabricated from polymeric materials

A new force sensor element based on multilayer thin film technology and adapted for optical readout in a conventional scanning force microscope has been developed. The use of polymers as cantilever materials enables the introduction of mechanical properties otherwise not accessible with microfabrication based on Si technology. The fully batched fabricated cantilevered force transducer is based on the photoresist novolak and incorporates an integrated EBD tip. Bending experiments on microstructures indicate that the Young’s modulus of novolak is about two orders of magnitude lower than for Si. Therefore, in using a cantilever design similar to that with Si it is possible to fabricate more flexible structures from polymeric materials. The new force sensors have been tested and their performance has been evaluated on different samples.