Design of Miniaturized, Self-Out-Readable Cantilever Resonator for Highly Sensitive Airborne Nanoparticle Detection

Proceedings

Fahrbach, Michael¹  Bertke, Maik²  Xu, Jiushuai³  Setiono, Andi⁴ 

[1] Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.;Institute of Semiconductor Technology (IHT), Braunschweig University of Technology, Hans-Sommer-Straße 66, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany;Laboratory for Emerging Nanometrology (LENA), Langer Kamp 6a, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany;Presented at the Eurosensors 2018 Conference, Graz, Austria, 9–12 September 2018

关键词: nanoparticles;    self-reading femtogram balance;    cantilever resonator;    FEM simulations;    electrostatic particle collection;   

DOI  :  10.3390/proceedings2130879

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In this paper, a self-out-readable, miniaturized cantilever resonator for highly sensitiveairborne nanoparticle (NP) detection is presented. The cantilever, which is operated in thefundamental in-plane resonance mode, is used as a microbalance with femtogram resolution. Toachieve a maximum measurement signal of the piezo resistive Wheatstone half-bridge, thegeometric parameters of the sensor design were optimized by finite element modelling (FEM).Struts at the sides of the cantilever resonator act as piezo resistors and enable an electrical read-outof the phase information of the cantilever movement whereby they do not contribute to theresonators rest mass. For the optimized design, a resonator mass of 0.93 ng, a resonance frequencyof ~440 kHz, and thus a theoretical sensitivity of 4.23 fg/Hz can be achieved. A μ-channel guiding aparticle-laden air flow towards the cantilever is integrated into the sensor chip. Electrically chargedNPs will be collected by an electrostatic field between the cantilever and a counter-electrode at theedges of the μ-channel. Such μ-channels will also be used to accomplish particle separation for sizeselectiveNP detection. Throughout, the presented airborne NP sensor is expected to demonstratesignificant improvements in the field of handheld, MEMS-based NP monitoring devices.

【 授权许可】

CC BY