Piezoresistive sensors for atomic force microscopy - numerical simulations by means of virtual wafer fab

An important element in microelectronics is the comparison of the modelling and measurements results of the real semiconductor devices. Our paper describes the final results of numerical simulation of a micromechanical process sequence of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) sensors. They were obtained using the virtual wafer fab (VWF) software, which is used in the Institute of Electron Technology (IET). The technology mentioned above is used for fabrication of the AFM cantilevers, which has been designed for measurement and characterization of the surface roughness, the texturing, the grain size and the hardness. The simulation are very useful in manufacturing other microcantilever sensors.