A scanning force microscope resembles much to an old fashioned vinyl record player, where a needle is riding over the record grooves and picking up the music signal that is encoded in the topographical features. However, the pick up in a scanning force microscop is about 100 to l 000 times smaller. Hence, it can not be build with conventional fabrication techniques. In a scanning force microscope a tiny cantilever beam with a sharp tip is used to image a sample surface with a resolution at the nanometer and even atomic scale. The requirements for the mechanical devices used in this application are very high, since they have to represent the interface between the millimeter and the nanometer world. The fabrication of the tools is a typical application field for microsystem technologies. It borrows many process steps from the well established planar integrated circuit fabrication, and essentially extends them towards three dimensional micromachining in order to obtain the mechanical micro components and systems. The results presented here summarize our exploration in this relatively new technology area for the development of miniaturized tools for the scanning probe systems. First it describes the silicon batch fabrication of nanometer sharp tips and micrometer sized cantilever beams. Then devices with an integrated electrostatic deflection sensor and actuator are introduced and used for non-contact mode imaging. Simultaneous parallel surface imaging with piezoresistive deflection sensors is shown, presenting a remedy to the inherent slow scan rate of single probes. And finally, a piezoresistive lateral force sensor is demonstrated for use in nano-tribological experiments. This thesis is intended to contribute to the advancement of micromachining technologies in the area of local probe instruments. In particular it shall contribute to the cost effective fabrication of large amounts of micro-devices which are needed to satisfy the demand for silicon tools in the steadily growing market of surface scanning microscopes. Prospective applications also expant into the domain of proximal probe nano-lithography or high-resolution data storage.