Electrochemical etching of lightweight nanotips for high quality-factor quartz tuning fork force sensor: atomic force microscopy applications

Danish Hussain; Jianmin Song; Hao Zhang; Xianghe Meng; Hui Xie

Electrochemical etching of lightweight nanotips for high quality-factor quartz tuning fork force sensor: atomic force microscopy applications

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Author(s): Danish Hussain^{1, 2} ; Jianmin Song¹ ; Hao Zhang¹ ; Xianghe Meng¹ ; Hui Xie¹
- Affiliations: 1: State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150080 , People's Republic of China ;
  2: Department of Mechatronics Engineering , College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology , Islamabad 44000 , Pakistan
Source: Volume 13, Issue 8, August 2018, p. 1136 – 1140
DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2017.0924 , Online ISSN 1750-0443

Received 30/12/2017, Accepted 25/04/2018, Revised 16/04/2018, Published 01/08/2018

Commercially available quartz tuning forks (QTFs) can be transformed into self-sensing and actuating force sensors by micro-assembling a sharp tip on the apex of a tine. Mass of the tip is critical in determining the quality (Q)-factor of the sensor, therefore, fabrication of the lightweight nanotips is a precondition for high Q-factor QTF sensors. The work reports fabrication of very lightweight tungsten nanotips with a two-step electrochemical etching technique which can be used to develop high Q-factor QTF force sensor. First, a tungsten wire with protective coating at one end (1–2 mm) is etched with a trapezoidal waveform to form a lengthy (∼2–5 mm) and slender (diameter ∼10–40 μm) micro-needle. In the second step, sharp tip apex is fabricated with a direct current etching. High Q-factor (6600–8000) QTF force sensors have been developed with the fabricated nanotips. Atomic force microscope scanning of nano-grating and a triblock copolymer surface validates the scanning performance of the developed sensors.

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Electrochemical etching of lightweight nanotips for high quality-factor quartz tuning fork force sensor: atomic force microscopy applications

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