Dynamics of Integrated Silicon Micro-heaters

Abstract Micro-cantilevers with integrated heaters serve as powerful tools for investigation and manipulation at the nanometer scale. They can be used to locally heat surfaces. They can also serve as low-cost, highly integrable topography sensors, and find application as position sensors for nanopositioning applications. In this paper we present a tractable feedback model that captures the thermo-electric dynamics of these micro-heaters. A systems approach is preferred over a modeling approach based on the underlying physical mechanisms. Experimental results on the write/read heaters and the thermal position sensors from a probe-based data-storage device are presented.