A nano measurement machine equipped with a 3D piezo-resistive micro tactile probe

Abstract

A 3D micro tactile probe based on piezo-resistive effect is developed for dimensional metrology and a detailed analysis on the hysteresis, resolution, crosstalk and uncertainty of the probe is presented. A Nano Measurement Machine (NMM) equipped with the 3D micro tactile probe is proposed as a new high precision zero-point indicator for micro- and nano-scale traceable dimensional measurement, which is calibrated according to the standard characteristic curve. In 1mm step-height standard measurement experiment using the 3D piezo-resistive micro tactile probe, the experimental results show a standard deviation of 37nm in the vertical tactile direction and one of 104nm in transverse tactile direction while the standard deviation is 40nm in the vertical direction in the 2mm step-height standard measuring experiment.