OLYMPUS Cantilevers

OLYMPUS Micro Cantilever HA1000WS

The problem

Small variations in tipshape can alter roughness values significantly. Reproducible results over a series of measurements can only be obtained without exchanging the tip inbetween. Since the commonly used silicon tips show significant wear after a few measurements, roughness measurements on hard and flat surfaces (like silicon wafers) often yield unreproducible results.

The solution

Olympus Silicon-Nitride tips for TappingMode(TM) and Non-contact mode, a striking new development based on Olympus long experience with Silicon Nitride cantilever engineering. These Si3N4tips show considerably less wear, leading to consistent roughness results and profile determination, even on challenging substrates.

Main features:

• Resonance frequency 160 kHz, spring constant 15 N/m.
• Tip radius Twin tip with an effective tip height of 200 nm, on top of a 12 micrometer pyramide.
• Samples with feature heights below 200 nm can be consistently measured, because the second tip is located minimum 200 nm above the surface.
• Gold reflex coating with cobalt intermediate layer on the cantilevers back side increases reflectivity and minimizes optical interferences on reflective samples.