JP2000082244A - Information processor for controlling two planes in parallel, and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control two planes to be paralleled by a simple configuration by providing plural displacement detecting means consisting of capacitance sensors arranged on the planes composed of one plane with a probe thereon and another plane forming a recording medium opposed to each other in a device. SOLUTION: Probes are arranged on an upper electrode substrate 104, and a lower electrode substrate 103 forms a recording medium plane, and these substrates compose an information processing device. On the upper and lower electrode substrates 104, 103, pairs of electrode probes 101, 102 for displacement detection are arranged to compose three sets of capacitance sensors. An actuator drive unit 106 supports three actuators 105, and drives the upper electrode substrate 104 in the direction perpendicular to the lower electrode substrate 103 plane at the position of the electrode probes 101 for displacement detection. A surface matching control circuit 107 receives a variation signal of the capacitance from the capacitance sensors and measures a distance between the upper and lower electrode substrates 103, 104, and drives the actuators 105 based thereon.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method utilizing an electric phenomenon caused by applying and approaching a voltage between both a probe and a recording medium. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method for performing parallel control on two planes, that is, a plane on which a probe is arranged and a plane of a recording medium when performing reading.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a probe is brought closer to a sample, and a physical probe (tunnel phenomenon, atomic force, or the like) generated at that time is used to directly observe a material surface and an electronic structure near the surface. Microscopes (hereinafter abbreviated as SPMs) have been developed, and real-space images of various physical quantities, whether single-crystal or amorphous, can be measured with high resolution. In the industrial field, in recent years, attention has been paid to the principle of high resolution of the atomic or molecular size of SPM and disclosed in JP-A-63-16155.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2 and JP-A-63-161553, application and practical application to an information recording / reproducing apparatus by using a recording layer in a medium have been energetically advanced.

[0003]

In application to the information recording / reproducing apparatus as described above, parallel processing (multiplication) of a plurality of probes is progressing in order to improve the transfer rate. Also, a probe fabrication process for that purpose is being studied using a conventional semiconductor process or the like. For example,
In order to obtain a transfer rate of about 200 Mbps, 2000 probes are required when 100 kbps probes are used. For example, 2000 probes are manufactured on the same substrate by using a semiconductor process. In many cases, these probes are two-dimensionally arranged on the substrate surface. As described above, when the probes are arranged two-dimensionally, it is indispensable to maintain the parallelism between the medium surface and the probe substrate in order to adjust the distance so that all the probes can interact with the medium. For this purpose, for example, by providing three or more measurement mechanisms for measuring the distance between the probe substrate and the recording medium on the probe substrate, two or more measurement mechanisms can be used based on the distance information measured thereby.
The plane can be kept parallel. However, when performing distance measurement at a plurality of points at the same time, a light lever type AFM conventionally used requires a configuration of a light detection system, and a mechanism for simultaneously measuring displacements of a plurality of probes is extremely complicated. In addition, there is a problem in terms of probe integration. On the other hand, recently, a capacitance sensor that can measure the capacitance with high accuracy using Δ 精度 conversion or the like has come out.

Accordingly, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and by using the above-mentioned capacitance sensor, parallel control of two planes, that is, the plane on which the probe is arranged and the plane of the recording medium is realized. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus and an information processing method which can be realized by a simple mechanism and can be easily integrated.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is characterized in that an information processing apparatus and an information processing method for controlling two planes in parallel are configured as follows. . That is, the information processing apparatus of the present invention
In an information processing apparatus, a plurality of probes that scan a recording medium and write and read information by physical interaction are arranged two-dimensionally in a plane.
Position setting means for controlling in parallel two planes of a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged and a plane of the recording medium, wherein the position setting means is arranged to face each of the two planes A plurality of displacement detecting means comprising a capacitance sensor, an actuator for controlling a distance between the two planes, and an electrostatic capacitance measuring means for measuring a capacitance of the displacement detecting means. It is characterized by being constituted. Further, in the information processing apparatus according to the present invention, since the position setting means controls the two planes in parallel, the entire capacitance of the displacement detection means disposed opposite to the two planes is switched in series. It is characterized by having a switching mechanism for adjusting the distance between the two planes by performing the two planes in parallel or switching them in parallel. Further, in the information processing apparatus according to the present invention, the displacement detecting means may include: three plate electrodes arranged at positions that are not on the same straight line on a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged; And a flat plate electrode on the plane of the recording medium, which is arranged to face the recording medium. Further, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the actuator is located at the position of each of the plate electrodes, and is configured to displace an interval between the opposed electrodes. Further, the information processing method of the present invention includes a plurality of probes arranged two-dimensionally in a plane, scans the probes with respect to a recording medium, and writes and reads information by the physical interaction. In the information processing method to be performed, when writing and reading the information, the capacitances of the displacement detecting means arranged to face each other on two planes, a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged and a plane of the recording medium. The whole is switched in series so that the two planes are arranged in parallel, or switched in parallel to adjust the interval between the two planes, and the two planes of the plurality of probes and the plane of the recording medium are adjusted. It is characterized in that the planes are controlled in parallel. Further, in the information processing method according to the present invention, the parallel control of the two planes may be performed by switching in series the entire capacitance of the displacement detection means disposed opposite to the two planes.
After correcting the inclination of the planes, the operation for adjusting the interval between the two planes by switching in parallel is sequentially performed. Further, the information processing method of the present invention is characterized in that the switching of the capacitance includes three plate electrodes arranged at positions that are not on the same straight line on a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged; This is characterized by switching over the entire capacitance of the displacement detecting means constituted by a flat plate electrode on the plane of the recording medium arranged opposite to the flat plate electrode.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As described above, according to the present invention, the position setting means includes a plurality of displacement detecting means comprising capacitance sensors arranged opposite each other on the two planes, An actuator for controlling the distance between the displacement detecting means between the two planes and a capacitance measuring means for measuring the capacitance of the displacement detecting means, and the entire capacitance of these displacement detecting means is connected in series or Capacitance values are measured by switching in parallel, and two planes, that is, the plane on which the probe is arranged and the plane of the recording medium, are controlled in parallel by using the measured capacitance values, so that the two planes can be easily aligned. The present invention achieves the above-mentioned object of the present invention.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. [Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of a surface matching mechanism according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the upper view, the upper electrode substrate 104 is opposed to the lower electrode substrate 103 when viewed from the side, and each electrode substrate has a displacement detection electrode probe 101 and 10 formed of a plate electrode constituting a capacitance sensor.
2 are provided. These probes measure the distance between the substrates by using a change in capacitance. The upper electrode substrate 104 is driven by three actuators 105 in a direction perpendicular to the recording medium surface. An actuator drive unit 106 also supports the actuator. The actuator driving unit 106 drives each actuator in accordance with a control signal of the matching control circuit 107. The matching control circuit 107 controls the capacitance based on the capacitance value, which is an output signal sent from each probe. The capacitance is controlled in series and parallel based on the switching control signal output from the matching control circuit 106. When the switch is operated, it changes as described later.

[0008] The lower part of FIG. 1 is a view of the upper electrode substrate 104 as viewed from below. The placement of each probe is not on the same line as determining the plane. The innermost square indicated by a dotted line in the figure indicates the position of the actuator 105. The outer dotted line is the electrode probe 102 for detecting the displacement of the lower electrode substrate. (Hereinafter, each actuator is referred to as an actuator A, an actuator B, and an actuator C by using a probe symbol.) Next, the actual operation will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2A, the serial-parallel switch 108 has switches SW1 to SW4 for switching the capacity of each probe.
Are provided. In this example, a mechanical relay switch circuit was manufactured. These switches are controlled to be turned on / off by a switching control signal output from the matching control circuit 106 in FIG. Capacitive sensor between the detected capacitance C and distance d between the electrodes _{C = ε r · ε 0 ·} S
/ D (where ε ₀ is the dielectric constant of vacuum and ε _r is the relative dielectric constant of air). Distance can be calculated.

Here, it is assumed that when the distance between the C ₀ electrodes is reduced by Δd in the initial state, the capacitance increases by ΔC. That is, C = C ₀ + ΔC. For example, two probes A and B in FIG. 1 will be described as an example. In the state where the setting is performed first, the respective capacitance values are on the side of C _A0 and C _B0 .
When the probe substrate and the medium approach each other, C _A = C _A0 + Δ
C _A , C _B = C _B0 + ΔC _B , where Becomes When both electrode substrate surfaces are parallel, the distance between the electrodes of the probes A and B is equal, and both capacitance values are equal. Therefore,
These C _A0 and C _B0 are connected in series (the capacity is set to C ₀ ), and the actuators A and B at the respective lever positions are moved by equal amounts in opposite directions so that C ₀ is maximized. I do. here, Therefore, when C ₀ is the maximum, C _A = C _B. That is, it is understood that the lines connecting the medium surface and the probe AB are parallel.

Therefore, in the present invention, the switching control of the switches as shown in FIG. 2 is performed so that the lower electrode substrate surface and the upper electrode substrate surface are arranged in parallel (hereinafter, referred to as "surface alignment") for the three probes. Realized simply. FIG. 2A shows a case where three probes are connected in parallel, and FIG. 2B shows a case where they are connected in series.
Switching is performed by controlling the connection of SW1 to SW4. Surface matching was performed according to the procedure shown in FIG. First, make the connection shown in FIG. 2B (step 1)
The actuators A, B, and C are moved in a direction in which the probe substrate and the medium substrate approach (Step 2). In the present embodiment, these actuators use a laminated piezoelectric material. However, actuators having a relatively large dynamic range such as a stepping motor may be used. At a certain distance depending on the size of the electrode, capacitance detection starts. If the capacitance is detected by connecting in series, it is considered that all the probes are within the detectable range. Then, while the probe is connected in series (FIG. 2 (b)), the actuator C is kept stationary, and the actuators A and B are moved in opposite directions by an equal amount to search for a point where the detected capacitance value becomes maximum (step). 3).

Next, while the connection is the same (FIG. 2B), the detected capacitance value is changed while moving the actuators A and B in the same direction and the actuator C in the opposite direction by the same amount of displacement. Search for the maximum point (step 4). After the above operation, the probe substrate surface was parallel to the medium substrate surface. Next, probe resistances ABC are connected in parallel (FIG. 2A), and the entire actuator is adjusted to an arbitrary distance while being moved in the same direction by the same amount of displacement (step 6).

In order to confirm that both alignments are performed with high precision by the above method, a probe substrate having a size of 5.5 mm square as schematically shown in FIG. 4 was prepared. The probe substrate (401) in FIG. 4 has three sets of surface-matching electrodes (402) and 400 (20 × 20) microprobes (403) for current detection at equal intervals. The area occupied by the microprobe part is 2m
m □. FIG. 5A shows each probe viewed from the side. The microprobes are connected by wirings as shown in FIG. In the case of current reading, it is connected to the R terminal in FIG. The relationship between the thickness of the electrode probe for surface alignment and the height of the probe for current detection is as shown in FIG. Probe electrode 5 for surface alignment
No. 01 was made by vacuum evaporation with an area of 1 square millimeter and a thickness of 2 μm. The probe electrode 503 for surface alignment was 3 mm2 in area and 2 μm in thickness, and was also produced by vacuum evaporation. The probe 502 for current detection has a length of 30
μm, height of the probe 7μm, thickness of both probes 2μ
m. It is formed so that there is a difference of 3 μm between the time when the tip of the surface-matching probe contacts the medium and the time when the electrode probe for current detection contacts. The capacitance at the moment when the current detection probe came into contact was about 3 pF per sensor. As shown by the arrows in FIG. 5A, when the two substrates are brought closer to each other, the two probes make contact with each other as shown in FIG. 5B.

Using the probe substrate as described above, a plane matching experiment was performed. An Au thin film having a thickness of several hundreds of degrees deposited on a Si substrate was used as a medium portion for current detection. The initial approach operation (coarse movement) was visually performed by a stepping motor, and the fine movement was performed by each actuator (the above-described ABC-type multilayer piezoelectric element). After the completion of the alignment, the current was detected by the current detection probe while applying the voltage of 0.1 V to the medium while slowly moving the actuator ABC to perform the operation of step 6 in FIG. Current was detected in all probes. This 50
The value of 0 nm is almost equal to the sum of the irregularities in the planes of the probe substrate and the medium substrate, indicating that the surface alignment is performed with that accuracy.

[Embodiment 2] Recording and reproduction performed using the upper and lower electrode substrates described in Embodiment 1 will be described. The recording medium is disclosed in JP-A-63-161552 or JP-A-63-161.
An organic compound having a conjugated π-electron system described in U.S. Pat. No. 61553 was formed by a Langmuir-Blodgett method.
A monomolecular organic ultra-thin film (LB film) was used. This medium was formed on the Au thin film on the Si substrate described in Example 1. Recording was performed by applying a pulse voltage to the current detection probe as shown in Example 1 in chronological order.
The circuit was performed using the one shown in FIG. Unlike Example 1, a pulse was applied to each probe at the same timing using the W terminal instead of the R terminal. An applied waveform for recording was a triangular wave having a peak value of 3V. For reproduction, a DC bias of 2 V is applied to the substrate side, and the probe is R
The measurement was performed by connecting the terminals to measure the current.
Although not shown, a mechanism that can scan the medium in parallel with the medium surface is provided, and the bit can be recorded at any position on the medium while scanning the medium. I have.

While reciprocatingly scanning the medium at a width of 1 μm, the bits from all the probes were observed as an image similar to the STM using the current value, and the shape and size of the bits were constant for all the probes. No unreproduced parts were detected. Normally, when the pressing pressure of the probe against the medium is large, the contact area of the probe tip with the medium increases, and the bit tends to increase accordingly. Variations in bit size and shape are undesirable because they affect the error rate during reproduction. The results obtained in this example indicate that all the probes are in contact with the recording surface, and that no particular pressure or the like is applied to a particular probe or the like.
From this result, even if a plurality of probes are arranged two-dimensionally,
It has been shown that stable recording and reproduction can be performed by setting and scanning the position of the medium and the probe surface in parallel using the present invention.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When writing and reading information, the entire capacitance of the displacement detection means arranged opposite to two planes, that is, the plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged and the plane of the recording medium, is switched in series. By making the two planes parallel or switching in parallel to adjust the distance between the two planes, the parallel control of these two planes can be realized with a simple mechanism, and the integration is facilitated. It becomes possible. That is, according to the present invention, there is no need for complicated labor and a circuit for individually measuring the output of each probe, and when a piezoresistor is used for the displacement detection probe, a light such as a conventional AFM is used. Unlike the displacement detection using the method, the integration can be realized only by the semiconductor process, so that the integration can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a surface matching mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a connection diagram of a capacitance sensor according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a procedure of surface matching in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a recording / reproducing probe substrate provided with a capacitance sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between a displacement detection capacitance sensor and a current detection probe according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating wiring in a recording / reproducing probe according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101: Displacement detection electrode probe 102: Displacement detection electrode probe 103: Lower electrode substrate 104: Upper electrode substrate 105: Actuator 106: Actuator drive unit 107: Surface matching control circuit 108: Series / parallel switching device 401: Probe substrate 402: Surface matching electrode 403: Microprobe 501: Probe electrode 502: Probe 503: Probe electrode 601: Microprobe

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2F063 AA23 AA43 AA50 BA25 BA30 BC05 BD15 CA34 CB10 DA01 DA02 DA08 DD07 EA16 EB05 EB21 EB23 FA07 HA01 HA04 HA10 KA01 KA02 LA09 ZA01 ZA05 2H052 AA00

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus in which a plurality of probes which scan a recording medium and write and read information by physical interaction are arranged two-dimensionally in a plane. And a position setting means for controlling in parallel two planes, a plane on which the recording medium is disposed and a plane of the recording medium, wherein the position setting means is arranged so as to oppose each of the two planes. It is composed of a plurality of displacement detecting means composed of a capacitance sensor, an actuator for controlling the distance between the two planes, and an electrostatic capacitance measuring means for measuring the capacitance of the displacement detecting means. An information processing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The position setting means switches in parallel the entire capacitance of displacement detecting means arranged in opposition to the two planes in order to control the two planes in parallel.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a switching mechanism configured to parallelize the planes or switch the planes in parallel to adjust an interval between the two planes. 3. The displacement detecting means comprises: three plate electrodes arranged at positions that are not co-linear on a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged; The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a flat plate electrode on a flat surface of the recording medium. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the actuator is located at the position of each of the plate electrodes, and is configured to change a distance between the opposed electrodes. . 5. An information processing method comprising a plurality of probes arranged two-dimensionally in a plane, scanning said probes on a recording medium, and writing and reading information by physical interaction. When writing and reading the information, the entire capacitance of the displacement detecting means arranged in opposition to each of two planes, a plane on which a plurality of probes are arranged and a plane of a recording medium, is connected in series. The two planes are switched so as to be parallel, or the distance between the two planes is adjusted by switching in parallel, and the two planes of the plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged and the plane of the recording medium are controlled in parallel. An information processing method, comprising: 6. The parallel control of the two planes is performed in such a manner that the entire capacitance of the displacement detecting means disposed opposite to the two planes is switched in series to correct the inclination of the two planes, and then parallelized. 6. The information processing method according to claim 5, wherein an operation of switching and adjusting an interval between the two planes is sequentially performed and controlled. 7. The switching of the capacitance includes: three plate electrodes arranged at positions that are not on the same straight line on a plane on which the plurality of probes are arranged; 7. The information according to claim 5, wherein switching is performed by switching the entire capacitance of the displacement detection means constituted by a flat plate electrode on the plane of the recording medium arranged in a horizontal direction. Processing method.