Scanning near field thermal microscopy on a micromachined thin membrane

A resistive probe based scanning thermal microscope (SThM) has been used to perform complementary near field thermal measurements on the surface of a thin semiconductor membrane. This thin structure is part of a micromachined thermal rf power sensor and includes an integrated resistive heater used as an absorbing element for the input power. The resulting 2D surface temperature distribution and the 2D thermal wave propagation characteristic were determined. Considering the thermal wave behaviour at near field conditions, the local thermal conductivity of the thin membrane and the surrounding bulk material was investigated by usage of the 3 ω -method.