Conclusion and future work

Abstract

In this work, the design, fabrication and testing of advanced silicon micromachined cantilevers for high-density AFM thermomechanical data storage was accomplished. Three types of cantilevers were fabricated to provide the functionality of three major components in a AFM thermomechanical data storage system: a vertically sensitive readback sensor, a thermal writing head, and a tracking mechanism based on a lateral force sensor. These three components are based on micromachined elements with integrated sensing/heating capability, and eliminates the need for bulky external accessories such as lasers. The results of this work represent a major step towards the development of a compact, low-cost, high-density data storage device.KeywordsAreal DensityData Storage SystemTracking MechanismData Storage DeviceThermal Time ConstantThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.