In this paper, a scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) module with a modified Wheatstone bridge is presented. It is intended to be used with a novel four-terminal thermoresistive nanoprobe, which was designed for performing thermal measurements in standard static-mode atomic force microscopes. The modified Wheatstone bridge architecture is also compared to a Wheatstone bridge and a Thomson bridge in terms of their temperature measurement sensitivities. In fixed conditions, they are found to be (7.05 ± 0.04) μV K−1 for the modified Wheatstone, while (5.43 ± 0.06) μV K−1 for the Wheatstone and (0.91 ± 0.09) μV K−1 for the Thomson bridge. The usability of the three set-ups with four-terminal nanoprobes is also discussed. The design of devices included in the module is presented and the noise level of the modified Wheatstone bridge is estimated. A proportional–integral–derivative controller for active-mode SThM is also introduced.

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In this article, a novel microfabricated thermoresistive scanning thermal microscopy probe is presented. It is a V-shaped silicon nitride cantilever with platinum lines and a sharp off-plane nanotip. The cantilever fabrication sequence incorporates standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology processes and therefore provides high reproducibility, while the tip is additionally processed by focused ion beam, enabling high-sensitivity and high-resolution thermal sensing. The nanoprobe is designed for scanning thermal microscopes, operating in standard atomic force microscope setup with an optical detection system. The measurement setup, which is also presented, takes advantage of the four-point design of the probe by inclusion of a Thomson bridge and a modified Wheatstone bridge measurement electronics

In this paper, a novel micromachined scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) microcantilever with a sharp, conductive platinum tip is proposed for temperature and thermal conductivity measurements in sub-micron structures of micro- and nanoelectronic components. The idea and physical background of SThM operation is presented, together with brief description of probes and example images of a planar polycrystalline-silicon microfuse obtained using passive- and active-mode SThM