SBIR Phase II: Encased Cantilevers for Ultra-Sensitive Force and Mass Sensing in Liquids

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将提高封装原子力显微镜（AFM）悬臂的性能，降低其制造成本，并优化其性能，用于下一代扫描探针显微镜技术。原子力显微镜是提供纳米级材料信息的主要技术，但在流体中操作时，其性能受到粘性阻尼的影响。在该项目中开发的封闭式悬臂梁显着减少了阻尼，从而实现了高力灵敏度和性能，这与在空气中进行的AFM成像相同。这有助于定量解释数据和简化仪器操作。封装悬臂是一种插入式替代品，只需更换探头，就可以将现有仪器转换为尖端工具。这些产品的影响将在生物、清洁能源和材料科学等领域感受到。这项研究的第一个技术目标是创造新的悬臂几何形状，将我们的设备的性能推向理论极限。得益于专业的半自动化加工和质量控制工具的发展，第一阶段的研究产生了一种新型的低成本制造封装悬臂的技术。第二阶段研究的下一个技术目标是通过提高产量、增加批量和实施更多的制造自动化来进一步降低制造成本。我们期望展示低成本的加工方法，从而高效地制造出许多高质量的探针。第三个技术目标是为下一代扫描探针技术优化这些设备，包括定量纳米机械测绘、高速成像和有前途的新技术，如光诱导力显微镜。在项目结束时，我们将针对这些高增长应用优化产品。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will improve the performance of encased atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers, reduce their fabrication costs, and optimize their properties for next-generation scanned probe microscopy technologies. Atomic force microscopy is a workhorse technique for providing nanometer-scale information of materials, but its performance is compromised by viscous damping when operated in fluid. The encased cantilevers to be developed in this project significantly reduces damping, leading to high force sensitivity and performance which is identical to AFM imaging done in air. This aids quantitative interpretation of data and simplifies instrument operation. Encased cantilevers are a drop-in replacement, permitting the transformation of existing instruments into cutting-edge tools simply by exchanging the probe. The impacts of these products will be felt in fields from biology to clean energy to materials science.The first technical objective of this research is to create new cantilever geometries that push the performance of our devices to the theoretical limits. The Phase I research resulted in a novel low-cost technique to fabricate encased cantilevers, thanks to the development of specialized semi-automated processing and quality control tools. The next technical objective of Phase II research is to further reduce fabrication costs by improving yields, increasing batch size, and implementing more manufacturing automation. We expect to demonstrate low-cost processing methods in which many high quality probes are fabricated efficiently. The third technical objective is to optimize these devices for next-generation scanned probe technologies including quantitative nanomechanical mapping, high-speed imaging and promising novel techniques such as photo induced force microscopy. At the end of the project period we will have optimized products specifically targeting these high growth applications.