DESIGN OF A BIAXIAL NANOPROBE UTILIZING MATLAB SIMULINK

B. Goj
1
, M. Hoffmann
1

1
Micromechanical Systems Group, IMN MacroNano

, Ilmenau University of Technology

Abstract We present the design of a biaxial na-
noprobe which operates in semi-contact mode due to
resonant motion in two dimensions. The design
process utilizing Matlab Simulink is explained and
the solutions including the frequency amplitude
characteristic and the touching regime are present-
ed.

Keywords : Biaxial nanoprobe, CMM coordi-
nate measurement machine, resonant capacitive
probe, semi-contact mode

I Motivation

Recent trends in the design of probing systems lead
to miniaturized, high accuracy arrangements [1, 2].
Thus, it is inevitable to decrease the diameter of the tip
ball to reach a higher resolution of the system.
Avoiding stiction is the crucial challenge of minia-
turized probing systems which occurs because of the
increasing influence of adhesion forces due to smaller
ball diameters (cf. Figure 1). [2, 3]

Figure 1: Adhesion forces for ball-plane-connections with
different ball radii [3]
Thus, measurement effects like false triggering (the
tip ball is attracted by the surface of the specimen and
the probe registers contact before a real contact
occurs) and snap back (the tip ball sticks at the surface
of the specimen because of high surface tensions) arise.
The application of resonant tip ball motions is the
solution of the sticking problem. Thus, the system can
be operated in non- or semi-contact mode so that the
influence of the surface forces is decreased dramatically
[1-2, 6].
This paper focuses on a biaxial nanoprobe which
operates in semi-contact mode utilizing resonant mo-
tions in two dimensions. The design and the simulation
of the probing system are described.

II Design of the biaxial nanoprobe

The biaxial nanoprobe comprises the typical ele-
ments of a probing system: stylus, tip ball, sensors and
passive suspension (cf. Figure 2). The perpendicularly
arranged electrostatic sensors measure the x- and y-
position of the tip ball. Differential sensors increase the
output voltage and enable an independent evaluation of
the ball position which is elaborately discussed in
chapter III.
Two electrostatic actuators, each for one direction,
are integrated into the SOI-substrate additionally. These
actuators make it possible to drive the nanoprobe in
resonant motion and to measure in a semi-contact mode.
The two mechanical stops are necessary to avoid pull-in
and nanoprobe damage during the measurements.
Serpentine springs are utilized to ensure a passive
suspension with a low material volume and different
stiffnesses in x- and y-direction, respectively. The latter
is important to obtain different resonance frequencies
and independent motion.
The ruby ball is going to be attached utilizing a glu-
ing process after the fabrication of the SOI substrate.
Therefore, two cavities were designed which provides
three lay-on points for the ball. After the ball is posi-
tioned into the cavity of the device layer, glue will be
dispensed and cured. The good grade of the ruby ball is
the main advantage of this approach. The soft coupling
between ball and stylus is the disadvantage of the glue
assembly, because this can decrease accuracy of the
whole system. Nevertheless, in comparison to other
Figure 2: Design of the biaxial nanoprobe
probing systems [2, 4-6] the presented biaxial nano-
probe has only one glue connection which is situated
near the transmission point of the force. That decreases
the torque on the glue connection and minimizes errors
because of the elastic behavior of the glue. More design
characteristics are described briefly in the following:
the backside of the electrodes is released to mini-
mize squeeze film damping on their bottom,
aluminum is used as metal for wire bonding pads,
the moving structure is perforated to minimize its
mass and to increase the resonance frequencies,
the release of the stylus is realized by defined
breaking points,
the step in the electrode design enables a nearly
independent motion of the x- and y-actuator.
Important fabrication steps are the evaporation and
structuring of aluminum on the top and on the bottom
and the dry etching process (DRIE) on the top and the
bottom of the substrate, respectively.

III Touching regime

As mentioned in chapter II the nanoprobe is operat-
ed in semi-contact mode utilizing two oscillations in x-
and y-direction. If the tip ball is near an object the
oscillation of the probe is damped in x-direction or the
probe rotates around the rotation point D (contact in y-
direction). These two cases will be explained in this
section.
First of all it is necessary to mention that the center
of gravity of the probe is not in coincidence with the
rotation point. This is crucial for the design of the probe
because an independent evaluation of x- and y-position
of the ruby ball is demanded. Therefore, the sensor
capacities in x-direction must be symmetrically ar-
ranged to the rotation point D. The shift e of the x-
electrodes is derived in chapter IV.

Figure 3: Touching regime of the biaxial nanoprobe
In the first case, the probe is damped in x-direction
because the x-actuator reaches the threshold x
t
(cf.
Figure 3). The measurement of the capacity is done with
an evaluation board which has been described in [11].
This board generates an output voltage which is propor-
tional to the difference of the capacities c
x1
and c
x2
.
The amplitude of the output voltage or the phase
shift can be utilized for automatic evaluation of the
probe position. This requires constant driving frequency
and amplitude. Otherwise, it would be possible to drive
the system at constant phase shift and to evaluate the
resonant frequency utilizing a Lock-In-Amplifier [6].
The shift compensation of the rotation point has to be
considered in the probe design (compare Figure 2 with
Figure 3) to obtain an output voltage U
x
independent
from the rotation .
In the second case, the oscillation of the ruby ball is
damped in y-direction (y > y
t
). This generates a torque
to the probe around the rotation point D. The measure-
ment of the rotation requires a cross-coupling of the
sensor electrodes so that the difference of c
y1
and c
y2
is
not equal to zero. An automatic evaluation of the probe
position can be obtained by amplitude measurement of
the output voltage. Therefore, the driving voltage and
the frequency of the y-actuator have to be constant.

IV Parameters for Matlab Simulink

Matlab Simulink requires a few parameters for ex-
ample environmental conditions, design parameters
such as electrode distance or mechanic and electric
parameters. In the next sections, the calculation and
simulation of spring stiffness and damping factor will be
presented in detail. Other important parameters will be
introduced briefly in the following.
Orientated on commonly available probing systems
the electrode distance was set to 20 microns. Thus, the
probe can safely oscillate with an amplitude of
10 microns in order to avoid pull in. The capacities of
the actuator and sensor structures are 0,6 pF (in air, at
atmospheric pressure). The maximum sensor capacity
C
1
- C
2
is 2 pF.
Mass and mass internal inertia around the rotation
point D are determined utilizing Autodesk Inventor:
m = 1,26 mg
[

= 1,S7 1u
-12
Nm
<100> orientated SOI substrates were employed
with a device layer height of 100 microns and a specific
resistance of 0,01 Ohmm.

A. Spring Design of the biaxial nanoprobe

The investigation of the rotation point shift, the
stiffnesses in the Cartesian directions and the stiffness
against the rotation of the nanoprobe were main goals of
the spring design.
Simulation of the spring behaviour was carried out
in Ansoft Ansys. During the simulation design the DRIE
slope of two degree was considered. As discussed in
[10] the serpentine spring is favourable to get a suspen-
sion with nearly equal stiffnesses in x- and y-direction.
Boundary conditions for the Ansys simulation were:
the spring has nearly equal stiffnesses in x- and -
direction (assumption of linear motion which is
valid for small angles !),
the stiffness in z-direction should be maximized to
compensate earth gravity,
spring stiffnesses are in the range between 1 and
50 N/m (orientation on common probes [2, 4-6].
The solution of the Ansys simulation is shown in Ta-
ble 1.
Table 1: Solution of the Ansys simulation
c
x
in N/m c
y

in N/m c
z
in N/m c

in Nm/rad
23,0 51,2 128,8 2,4e-4

c =
b
2
o

(1)
Figure 4: Model of the spring arrangement

The movement of the rotation point is derived with a
simple model (Figure 4). The equation for the length e
can be determined utilizing the bearing reactions as well
as the torque and force balances, [7]. Simulations in
Ansys confirmed Equation 1 which has been considered
in the probe design (cf. Figure 2).

B. Damping of the biaxial nanoprobe

Slide film damping on the bottom and the top side,
side wall damping, air drag force damping and squeeze
film damping were considered to calculate the damping
factor.
The crucial damping effect is squeeze film damping
which occurs because of air expulsion between the
electrodes. The approach of a long rectangular plate is
used to calculate the damping constant k, [8].
k = -
p b
3
l
b
3

(6)

The mathematical description of the other damping
effects is not presented here. However, appropriate
equations to calculate the damping constants can be
extracted from [8, 9].
The damping factors in x- and y-direction turned out
to be nearly equal: k
x
= k

= 9,S Nm .

V Simulation in Matlab Simulink

The whole Matlab Simulink model of the biaxial na-
noprobe cannot be presented at this point because of its
complexness. Nevertheless, the important parts of the
model are presented in Figure 5. The Simulink model is
based on a differential equation system (2-4), [8].
q = x
1
=
1
R
_u
I
-
x
1
(J
0
-x
2
)
e A
_
(2)
x = x
2
= x
3

(3)
x = x
3
=
1
m
_
x
1
2
2 e A
-c x
2
- k x
3
_
(4)
F
c
=
A e
2 J
2
u
I
2

(5)

The electric circuits are not shown in Figure 5.
However, the forces F
e
represent the electric circuits of
the system (cf. Equation 5). Equations 2-4 are valid for
the actuators, the sensors and the parasitic actuators.
Thus, three electric sources must be modelled for one
direction which generate three forces (cf. Figure 5).
The sensor forces generate no significant deviation
of the mass because of the high frequency of the sensor
voltage (charge-discharge evaluation board [11]). The
parasitic forces decrease the amplitudes of the oscilla-
tions, but they are minimized by applying some design
rules (high parasitic gaps, small bondpads). A detailed
view on the forces was carried out in [10].
The rotation around point D depends on the oscilla-
tion in y-direction. If y is larger than the threshold y
t
the
ruby ball is in contact with the specimen and a rotation
occurs. The torques M
x
and M
y
are generated from the
x- and y-actuator during the rotation. This torques were
considered and minimized in the Simulink model to
avoid an unstable system.
The frequency amplitude characteristics of the x-
and y-actuator are shown in Figure 6. Two voltage
supplies were investigated.
u
1
= u
0
+ u
0
sin(t)
(5)
u
2
= u
0
sin(t)
(6)
A smaller bandwidth and a lower offset x
0
are the
advantages of a voltage supply with an offset (Equa-
tion 5). The second resonance peak is the disadvantage
of this voltage supply.
The resonance frequencies of the x- and y-direction
are different what is crucial for their independent
motion (
x
= 672 Bz ,

= 1uu6 Bz).
Friction generates the only coupling between x- and
y-direction.
Figure 5: Simplified Simulink model of the biaxial nanoprobe

Figure 6: Frequency amplitude characteristics of the biaxial
nanoprobe

Figure 7: Oscillation of the nanoprobe in x-direction for
different thresholds x
t
(x
max
=12 m)

Figure 8: Rotation of the biaxial nanoprobe for different
thresholds y
t
(y
max
=12 m)
The output parameters x and are shown for differ-
ent thresholds x
t
and y
t
in the Figures 7 and 8.
The amplitude and the phase shift of the x-
oscillation decreases with a decrease of the threshold x
t
.
The behaviour of the -direction is different. Once, the
ruby ball passes the threshold y
t
the biaxial nanoprobe
rotates around D and the sensor capacities c
y1
and c
y2

detect this change. Figure 8 shows the importance of a
high resonance frequency in -direction. If f
R
>> f
Ry

( f

= 1778 Hz for the biaxial nanoprobe) the tip ball can
follow the oscillation of the y-actuator. Otherwise, the
system starts to oscillate itself and measurement is
impossible.

VI Conclusion

The concept and the simulation of a new biaxial na-
noprobe were presented in this work. The principal
functionality of the system was demonstrated and
proved utilizing a Matlab Simulink simulation. The
main advantages of the probing system are:
resonant motion in order to avoid sticking,
semi-contact mode to avoid specimen damage,
fully integrated design of the sensor and actuator
structures in a shared SOI substrate.
The application of only one glue assembly near to
the force impact point is another advantage of the
system. Thus, the accuracy of the biaxial nanoprobe is
higher than in commercially available systems [4, 5].
Fabrication and measurement of the biaxial nano-
probe will be the next research activities. First meas-
urements were already done with a uniaxial nanoprobe
(Figure 9). The utilized evaluation board is also suitable
for the biaxial nanoprobe. [11]

Figure 9: Measurement of a uniaxial nanoprobe
At the end of the project SFB 622, the biaxial nano-
probe will be integrated into the nanopositioning and
measurement machine NPMM25, [12]. In connection
with this high-end positioning tool the nanoprobe could
measure with an accuracy of 100 nm or even higher.

Acknowledgement
The presented works were funded by the German
Research Foundation (DFG) under contract SFB 622.

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