STTR Phase II: Diamond Nanoprobes for Atomic Force Microscopy - Imaging, Metrology, Material Property Measurement, Process Control, and Manipulation with Ultrahigh Performanc

This STTR Phase II project will develop commercially viable atomic force microscope (AFM) probes fabricated from ultrananocrystalline diamond. The project will refine the processes developed in Phase I and bring contact and non-contact all-diamond probes to market. Probes using conducting diamond that are chemically and electronically tunable and have superb tribological properties will also be developed. This work will facilitate new industrial applications for AFM, including high-throughput imaging, metrology, and characterization of large quantities of materials, local electrical characterization for process control in micro/nanoelectronics, nanomechanical characterization of MEMS/NEMS devices, and ultraprecise hard mask correction for the micro/nanolithography industry.