Working Compartment

The working compartment contains the mechanical components of the NanoFrazor Explore. The mechanics are encased in an environmental chamber.

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Figure 37 The working compartment contains the NanoFrazor Explore mechanics resting on an air-suspended granite plate within the environmental chamber.

Environmental Chamber

The environmental chamber can be flooded with various gases (e.g. nitrogen) to lower the ambient humidity. Temperature and humidity levels can be measured by the temperature and humidity sensor.

NanoFrazor Mechanics

At the heart of the NanoFrazor mechanics is the thermal cantilever. The cantilever is a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) component which is electrostatically actuated by applying a voltage to the substrate on the sample holder. A drawing of the thermal cantilever is shown in Figure 38. Two heaters are present on the cantilever. The heater close to the tip is called writer and is used to heat up the tip. The other heater is called reader and is used to measure the heat exchange with the surface.

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Figure 38 Drawing of the thermal cantilever.

The thermal cantilever is located at the foremost part of the thermal cantilever chip (see Figure 39). The voltages are applied to the electrical contact pads via the fan-out.

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Figure 39 Thermal cantilever chip.

Individual cantilever chips can be removed from the provided cantilever wafer using tweezers. They can be mounted into the cantilever holder using the cantilever exchange tool (following the cantilever replacement instructions). The NanoFrazor mechanics further consists of two independent 2+1 axis systems: The high-speed XY and Z piezoscanners and the XY positioning system. An optical microscope is mounted on the XY positioning system for optical inspection. The sample is placed on the sample holder directly on the high-speed XY piezo scanner (see Figure 40 and Figure 41).

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Figure 40 Drawing of the NanoFrazor mechanics (front view).

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Figure 41 Drawing of the NanoFrazor mechanics (side view).

Positioning System and Piezoscanners

The independently controlled mechanical systems permit two different distance movement ranges for the thermal cantilevers in 3 axes each. The monolithic XY stage of the high speed piezoscanner (holding the sample holder and the sample) is directly mounted onto the granite plate. It is mechanically decoupled from the rest of the mechanical system. The high speed Z piezoscanner is mounted between the Z positioning system and the cantilever holder (see Figure 9). Both the positioning system and the piezoscanners are equipped with integrated position sensors and closed-loop control systems.

Table 1 Specs of the positioning system
Property Specification
X, Y range 10 cm x 10 cm
Z range 10 mm
Position sensor resolution 1 nm
Position accuracy (absolute) 1 µm/m
Table 2 Specs of the high speed piezoscanner system
Property Specification
X, Y range 75 µm x 75 µm
Z range 20 µm

Cantilever Holder

The cantilever holder allows for easy cantilever replacement and provides an electrical connection to the preamplifier box. A magnetic locking system assures stable mounting and precise reproducible positioning. The thermal cantilever pitch angle can be adjusted by using the cantilever pitch adjustment micrometric screw (see Figure 41).

Sample Holder

The sample holder is mounted directly on top of the high speed XY piezoscanner. It is composed of a glass tile coated with a layer of conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) and a clamp for securing the sample. Both the ITO coated glass tile and the clamp are insulated from the common ground and are used to apply a variable electrical potential to the sample in order to electrically attract the capacitive platform of the thermal cantilever for patterning.

Optical Microscope

The optical microscope provides a top view image around the thermal cantilever with a field of view of around 1 mm² and a resolution of around 1.2 µm. To manually adjust the focus (e.g. for thicker samples) the microscope focussing knob (Figure 41) can be turned. The microscope camera is connected to the NanoFrazor PC via a USB connection for monitoring and capturing the microscope image with the NanoFrazor software on the PC.

Housing Lights

The housing lights can be controlled via the NanoFrazor software via the environmental controller. It features LEDs of different colors.

Storage Compartment

Vibration Isolation

The mechanical components of the NanoFrazor are mounted on a vibration isolation system consisting of an ultra-flat granite plate supported by four vibration isolation legs. Three leveling valves below the granite plate control the vibration isolation legs. The screws on these valves may be used for leveling the granite plate with the aid of a spirit level.

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Figure 42 NanoFrazor Explore storage compartment.

Preamplifier Box and Cantilever Storage

The storage compartment contains the preamplifier box directly below the granite plate, as well as the valves for leveling the granite plate and adjusting the damping dynamics. Optionally, a storage environment (e.g. for storing the thermal cantilevers or samples in a nitrogen atmosphere) can be incorporated.