An improved technique for manufacturing Al0.3Ga0.7As microtips grown by self-organized liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) for a novel kind of integrated Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) sensors is reported. Scanning electron microscopy pictures show high apex quality of the tips. The future scope of batch monolithic integration of the SNOM sensor array by compound techniques of molecular beam epitaxy (or metal-organic chemical vapor deposition) and LPE is also discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.