Double-Axis Tapered HS-AFM Nanocantilever for Biomedical Applications

This paper reports the design, fabrication and testing of an electrostatic-actuated double-axis tapered nanocantilever with the highest reported resonance frequency and smallest spring constant for High-Speed AFM (HS-AFM). The design is supported by COMSOL simulation and experimental verification. The nanocantilever consists of a Bézier parabolic tapered profile horizontally and a linearly tapered profile vertically. The fabricated nanocantilevers measured a resonance frequency (ω) up to 11.7 MHz and spring constant (k) of as low as 0.077 N/m, leading to a 145 figure of merit (FoM) (ω/k), which is almost 20 times higher than the state-of-the-art HS-AFM cantilever for biomedical applications.