The 3D Nanofinger® sensor can be equipped with plenty of different probe tips, from tip radius below 50 nm up to e.g. calibrated ball shaped tips with long shafts. The wire shaped tips can measure deep into structures with high aspect ratios, to measure a surface roughness, a profile, dimensions or even a 3D image of a whole area, scaled in Nanometers. The ball shaped probe tips with well defined diameters are made for dimensional measurements.
All probe tips can be easily exchanged (simply with a screwdriver and tweezers).

Sharp wire shaped probe tips: The SEM image shows the front end of a wire shaped tip. The tip diameter is in this case 25 nm. Typical tip diameters are below 500 nm. The shape at the front end can be thin and long, as in this case, or shorter to be more stable.
Sharp wire shaped tip with a hook at the end: Even very special wire shaped tips can be arranged, e.g. to measure undercuts or into small structures.
Long rod shaped probe tips with a hook at the end: This probe tip allows to measure the wall topography and roughness deep inside of objects like e.g. small holes.
Ball shaped probe tips with calibrated diameters: Ball shaped probe tips are available with different diameters, actually down to a diameter of only 125 micron. These calibrated probe tips allow dimensional measurements, e.g. inside of small holes, or along inner & outer contours. Arrays of such measurements allow to determine the orientation of objects in the world coordinate system of the 3D-Nanofinger®.

Characterisation of probe tips:

The following table shows a typical set of probe tips, their characterisation and their application fields: