Novel cantilever design with high control of the mechanical performance

A novel mechanical structure design with reduced deflection offset is reported. This design offers a batch processing solution to a well-known problem in the fabrication of very thin crystalline silicon structures, that is initial bending due to anchoring deformation. Mechanical characteristics have been studied and shown comparable to those of a standard cantilever. Finite Element Modeling (FEM) and experimental results show a decrease in initial bending, in dispersion of such bending, and in the dispersion of mechanical properties of the cantilevers, what improve features of arrays. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.