In this paper, we report a new method of fabricating SPM (Scanning Probe Microscope) probe tips using heavily boron-doped silicon cantilevers self-aligned in <110> bulk silicon wafer. In this structure, a stress-free cantilever can be easily defined by selective etch stop of the heavily-doped boron region in an anistropic silicon etchant. The proposed tips do not require expensive SOI wafers and double-side alignment. Tip dimensions can be exactly defined regardless of wafer thickness from the self-aligned etch from the front side. Extensive FEM simulations have been performed for various shapes using ANSYS to estimate and optimize the resonant frequency and force constant of the structure. The tips successfully demonstrate scanning the image of a 1μm grating reference sample in contact and non-contact modes, respectively.
