Micromachined temperature calibration tool for contact Scanning Thermal Microscope probes

Local thermal probing has become a major tool for studying transport phenomena at micro and nanoscale levels, detecting hot spots and failures of microelectronic devices or measuring surface temperature distribution at these scales. If contact point measurement of a local tip is expected to provide the best spatial resolution, the fundamental aspect of the interaction between the probe tip and the sample remains the key point on which any quantitative measurement relies. We focus on the calibration procedure that will allow measuring the thermal response (error) of a contact probe used for temperature measurement on a surface. For this purpose, a micro-hotplate made of platinum heater suspended on thin silicon nitride (SiN) membrane represents an interesting tool. The objective is to develop heated reference samples with localized temperature sensors embedded on its surface to probe the temperature during the probe contact. We report on the thermal design of low-power calibration chip and the first results obtained when contacting wire based micro-thermocouple Scanning Thermal Microscope (SThM) probes.