Resonance-enhanced micromechanical cantilever for mass sensing
Journal
IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
Pages
437-441
Date Issued
2010
Author(s)
Abstract
Micromechanical cantilever-based mass sensors are more sensitive with the miniaturization of size. However, when the dimensions of the device reduced to nano-scale, the common optical readout is confronted by the diffraction influence. A resonance-enhanced micromechanical cantilever (REM-cantilever) is developed for mass sensing without reducing the cantilever size. The geometry of the REM-cantilever is designed for enhancing the second order resonance. Through simulation and experiment we have found out, that the second order resonant frequency is more sensitive than the first one. The sensitivity of the first and the second order resonance are -0.18 Hz/pg and -1.12 Hz/pg, respectively. The second order resonance of the REM-cantilevers can realize 6.2 times improvement in the mass sensing sensitivity. The REM-cantilevers are also suit for the other readout systems such as capacitive sensor or piezo-resistive sensor.
Type
conference paper