Abstract
A new sensor has been developed for examining surface topography, especially in a case that is difficult to examine by optical method. This sensor measures the surface topography by bringing a cantilever beams that is similar to a comb into contact with a sample and measuring the deflection of the cantilever as it is scanned across the surface. And this sensor can measure the surface topography at one time scan across the surface. The cantilever beams were processed from phosphor bronze foil. The piezoresisitive effect of silicon thin film was used to sense the deflection of the cantilever. We fabricated the sensor that had 20 and 160 cantilever beams, 200μm pitch, 7mm length, 30μm thickness, and applied to examine the surface topography of a copper plating surface on printed circuit board. We could observe the surface topography with 10μm resolution of depth direction.
