CMOS monolithic atomic force microscope

A single-chip atomic force microscope fabricated in industrial CMOS-technology with post-CMOs micromachining is presented, which comprises an array of twelve cantilevers with integrated deflection sensors and actuators, digital proportional-integral-derivative (PID) deflection controllers, amplification stages, offset compensation circuitry, digital filters for sensor-actuator coupling compensation, A/D and D/A converters, dedicated serial lines (one per cantilever) for fast data transfer, and an I/sup 2/C serial interface for chip programming. Parallel scanning imaging evidenced a height resolution better than 10nm.

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