Design and modeling of thermally excited microcantilever sensors for airborne nanoparticles mass detection

Conference: MikroSystemTechnik - KONGRESS 2011
10/10/2011 - 10/12/2011 at Darmstadt, Deutschland

Proceedings: MikroSystemTechnik

Pages: 4Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Wasisto, H. S.; Merzsch, S.; Kaehler, J.; Waag, A.; Peiner, E. (Institut für Halbleitertechnik (IHT), TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany)
Doering, L. (Nano- and Micrometrology Department, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany)
Uhde, E. (Material Analysis and Indoor Chemistry (MAIC), Fraunhofer WKI, Braunschweig, Germany)

Abstract:
In this paper, the designs and simulations of novel silicon in-plane and out-of-plane thermally excited microcantilevers for detecting airborne nanoparticles (NPs) mass are reported. The electrothermal microcantilever consists of heating resistor, sensing piezoresistors and NPs sampling electrode. By means of FEM (finite element modeling), the geometric structure is analyzed by investigating the resonant modes of the cantilevers upon electrothermal actuation. The simulation shows the in-plane mode design results in lower driving power than that of out-of-plane mode design. NPs sampling is demonstrated experimentally to validate the sensing method. The current fabricated sensor exhibits mass sensitivity of 5.4 Hz/ng with the quality factor of 1000.