Facile fabrication of multiple hydrogel atomic force microscope cantilevers via capillary filling and ultraviolet curing in an aligned PDMS mold pair

This paper reports the facile fabrication of multiple hydrogel atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers via capillary filling and ultraviolet (UV) curing in an aligned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) tip and beam mold pair. A subsequent single UV exposure replicates multiscale structures, 15 PEGDA AFM cantilevers with their tip radii of ~200 nm, simultaneously. Then, imaging tips of PEGDA AFM cantilevers are sharpened to ~50 nm via oxygen plasma ashing and metal strips are partially deposited by using a shadow mask. Fabricated PEGDA AFM cantilevers are thoroughly characterized and used for nanoscale imaging of HeLa cells, calibration gratings, and DVD media.