Micromechanical sensors for chemical and physical measurements

The advent of inexpensive, mass-produced microcantilevers promises to bring about a revolution in the field of chemical and physical sensor design. In this paper, a novel class of highly sensitive sensors are discussed that are based on commercially available microcantilevers, such as those used in atomic force microscopy. When coated with a sensitizing overlayer, these microcantilevers show significant changes in two independent analyte-induced signals, resonance frequency and static bending, as the result of exposure to various chemical and physical phenomena. Resonance frequency shift has the particular advantage of being relatively insensitive to interference from external factors such as thermal drift. Examples of micromechanical sensors based on this approach that are capable of detecting mercury vapor (with a sensitivity of 1.25 Hz/pg and linear correlation of 0.998), relative humidity (55 Hz/%R.H., correlation=0.999), or optical irradiation (10 Hz/nJ response) are discussed in detail, along with the effects of coatings on sensitivity, linearity, and reversibility of response. Further, extension of this tremendously flexible concept into a universal detection paradigm for chemical and physical phenomena is examined.