A method and device for preparing metal probes based on electrochemical etching

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and device for preparing a metal probe based on electrochemical etching, and the method for preparing a metal probe based on electrochemical etching comprises the following steps: (1) taking a metal wire and placing it in a layered liquid, The stratified liquid includes the corrosive liquid of the upper layer and the inert liquid of the lower layer. The first end of the metal wire extends into the inert liquid, and the second end is connected to one pole of the power supply; Metal wires are connected to form a path for electrochemical etching to collect thick metal probes; (2) take a ring electrode covered with a liquid film formed by corrosive liquid, and pass the needle tip of the thick metal probe vertically through the liquid film. The film is in contact with a liquid metal material, including liquid metal or a liquid metal alloy, for electrochemical etching. The method of the invention can obtain metal probes of different specifications by controlling the conditions, and has good applicability and application prospect.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the technical field of metal probes, in particular to a method and device for preparing metal probes based on electrochemical etching. Background technique [0002] High-quality probes are an important part of scanning probe technology. Different scanning probe technologies have different requirements for probe materials and tip diameters. For scanning tunneling microscopes, the probe materials include tungsten, iron and other materials. For tip-enhanced Raman technology, the probe materials are mainly gold and silver. Taking tungsten needles as an example, nano-tungsten needles are often used in some characterization equipment such as atomic force microscopes, probes of scanning tunneling microscopes and field emission scanning due to their high strength, high melting point, low vapor pressure, and stable chemical properties. Electron beam source for electron microscopy and low energy electron scattering. After decades of de...

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Problems solved by technology

However, many of the aforementioned methods for preparing nano-tungsten needles have certain shortcomings and are difficult to continue to promote:

[0003] 1. The above-mentioned self-sputtering method, ion milling method, and field emission assisted etching method need to use expensive equipment, and the cost is relatively high;

[0004] 2. In the "drop-off" method, the radius of curvature of the needle tip depends on the weight of the tungsten wire in the lower half of the platinum ring. However, this part is also what we need to collect, so its weight cannot be made very small, and the radius of curvature can only be made as small as possible. to 10nm

In addition, this method can only prepare tungsten with specific specifications, and its application is limited

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