Laser bending for high-precision curvature adjustment of microcantilevers

This work describes a laser based technique to adjust curvatures of silicon microcantilevers used for chemical and biological detection. In batch fabricated silicon cantilever arrays used for parallel sensing, it is often desirable that all cantilevers have nearly identical curvatures or flatness. We demonstrate that using the laser technique, it is possible to adjust curvatures by an amount as small as 3.5 murad, for cantilevers with a typical dimension of 110x13x0.6 mum (lengthxwidthxthickness). Different laser parameters can be applied in order to achieve the required curvature adjustment. A two-dimensional finite element model of laser curvature adjustment is presented which enables the prediction of the laser processing parameters. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.