Silicon microcantilevers are used for both contact AFM and nc-AFM. Silicon microcantilevers are produced from etching small (~100×10×1 μm) rectangular, triangular, or V-shaped cantilevers from silicon nitride. Originally they were produced without integrated tips and metal tips had to be evaporated on, later a method was found to integrate the tips into the cantilever fabrication process.
nc-AFM cantilevers tend to have a higher stiffness, ~40 N/m, and resonant frequency, ~200 kHz, than contact AFM cantilevers (with stiffnesses ~0.2 N/m and resonant frequencies ~15 kHz). The reason for the higher stiffness is stop the probe snapping to contact with the surface due to Van der Waals forces.
Silicon microcantilever tips can be coated for specific purposes, such as a ferromagnetic coatings for use as a magnetic force microscope. By doping the silicon, the sensor can be made conductive to allow simultaneous scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and nc-AFM operation.