PRONANO

Micromechanical cantilevers are well-established tools for investigating surface topography and forces in the nanometer and nanonewton regime. More than 20 years after the invention of atomic force microscopy (AFM) this technology has become one of the most important analysis instruments for nano-technology scientists and engineers. Nevertheless, cantilever based transducers for nano-scale information are still not used in mass-production. Their constricted detection area and serial data acquisition scheme sets fundamental limitations for throughput and working range. The PRONANO project was focussed on overcoming these obstacles by massive parallelisation of cantilever based transducers for highly efficient acquisition of measurement data with nanoscale resolution. The interdisciplinary consortium of leading SMEs in cantilever technology, nano-precision scanning and electronics, global players in semiconductor industry and university research groups of outstanding reputation established this project for realization of the next generation of atomic force microscope for high throughput, parallel surface topography scanning with nanometer resolution and nanonewton sensitivity. The proceedings of the PRONANO project provide an introduction into microcantilever technology and describe the major results of the project with a collection of 23 scientific publications. New cantilever system fabrication techniques turning the rather simple nano-mechanical AFM probe into a highly complex, highly integrated nano-electromechanical system were developed demonstrating successfully the integration of highly sensitive deflection detectors, efficient actuation mechanisms and electrical vertical through silicon connections - atechnology with a wide range of applications beyond the scope of the project. High density solder bump packaging of the devices onto multi-layer ceramics has been developed. Dedicated multi-channel application specific integrated circuits providing the major functionality of several AFM controllers within a few IC components were realized and applied successfully as basis of the multi-channel AFM controller. A laser interferometer controlled 3-axis stage with several centimetres of scanning range has been used as basis for the demonstrator system. Integration of the complex nanoelectromechanical probes and their control electronics has been achieved including synchronisation of scanner and multi-channel z-control. Finally, impressive demonstrations of parallel surface scanning at industrial relevant samples were performed demonstrating the performance of the new surface analysis instrument.