With the development of micro and nanotechnology, machining methods at micro and nanoscale have now become interesting research topics. One of the recently-proposed methods for sub-micron machining, especially NANOMACHINING, is dynamic plowing lithography (DPL) method. In this method an oscillating tip is used for machining soft materials such as polymers. The geometry of the oscillating beam and its vibrational properties are the most important parameters in this NANOMACHINING process. In this study, effects of the AFM beam geometry on its stiffness coefficient, resonant frequency, beam stability, and the maximum stress created in the beam structure were investigated for 12 different general shapes using the finite element method. The obtained results indicate that circular and square membranes are the most favourable AFM cantilever geometries because these structures provide higher machining force and speed; while for noisy conditions and environments, straight and V-shaped beams are recommended (because of their higher stability factor) for the DPL NANOMACHINING process.

Nowadays, with the growing use of AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) nanorobots in the fabrication of nanostructures, research in this area has been proliferated. The major limiting of manipulation process is the lack of real-time observation. Computer simulations have been widely applied to improve the feasibility of the process. The existing 2D strategies are incapable of presenting the feasibility of the process. Therefore, 3D simulations of effective forces during the manipulation process and the control mechanism of the process have been presented in this research, where the effective parameters are investigated. To evaluate the validity of the presented results, a FEM simulation is proposed. It is observed that the two sets of results (the analytical method and the finite element approach) have adequate correlation, while the discrepancy which is in an acceptable range, is due to the different solving technique of the finite element method. By applying the presented models, it is now possible to accurately predict the effective forces for fabricating the nanostructures.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is capable of imaging the surface of sample, as well as obtaining the information about mechanical properties of samples such as elastic modulus. Nano indentation using the atomic force microscope makes it a powerful technique to determine elastic properties like the Young's modulus for biological samples. JPK IP software is easy procedure and suitable to obtain elastic data and calculate young modulus.