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Type: 
Journal
Description: 
This work details an effective dynamic chemical etching technique to fabricate ultra-sharp tips for Scanning Near-Field Microwave Microscopy (SNMM). The protruded cylindrical part of the inner conductor in a commercial SMA (Sub Miniature A) coaxial connector is tapered by a dynamic chemical etching process using ferric chloride. The technique is optimized to fabricate ultra-sharp probe tips with controllable shapes and tapered down to have a radius of tip apex around ∼1 μm. The detailed optimization facilitated the fabrication of reproducible high-quality probes suitable for non-contact SNMM operation. A simple analytical model is also presented to better describe the dynamics of the tip formation. The near-field characteristics of the tips are evaluated by finite element method (FEM) based electromagnetic simulations and the performance of the probes has been validated experimentally by means of imaging a metal-dielectric sample using the in-house scanning near-field microwave microscopy system.
Publisher: 
MDPI
Publication date: 
22 Mar 2023
Authors: 

CH Joseph, Giovanni Capoccia, Andrea Lucibello, Emanuela Proietti, Giovanni Maria Sardi, Giancarlo Bartolucci, Romolo Marcelli

Biblio References: 
Volume: 23 Issue: 6 Pages: 3360
Origin: 
Sensors