Piezoresistive geometry for maximizing microcantilever array sensitivity (original) (raw)
Over the last 15 years, researchers have explored the use of piezoresistive microcantilevers/resonators as gas sensors because of their relative ease in fabrication, low production cost, and their ability to detect changes in mass or surface stress with good sensitivity . To date, the majority of microcantilevers have been fabricated with symmetric piezoresistor geometry and required a chemical reaction . Previous work in our laboratory has demonstrated the capability of a piezoresistive cantilever to detect the composition of a gas using a nonreaction-based mechanism (viscous damping) together with the beam resonant frequency . However, the Tshaped piezoresistor geometry yielded only small changes in resistance since the resistance changes were primarily due to bending stress at the base support of the T-structure, which occurred when the cantilever tip was displaced. Computational studies by our group have indicated that device sensitivity can be increased up to 700 times, purely by optimizing the geometry of the base piezoresistive support structure. The purpose of this work is to report, for the first time, on the fabrication and experimental testing of these novel asymmetric piezoresistive microcantilevers.
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