High S/N ratio slotted step piezoresistive microcantilever designs for biosensors

Abstract

This study proposes new microcantilever designs in slotted step configuration to improve the S/N ratio of surface stress-based sensors used in physical, chemical, biochemical and biosensor applications. The cantilevers are made of silicon dioxide with a u-shaped silicon piezoresistor in p-doped. The cantilever step length and piezoresistor length is varied along with the operating voltage to characterise the surface stress sensitivity and thermal drifting sensitivity of the cantilevers when used as immunosensor. The numerical analysis is performed using ANSYS Multiphysics. Results show the surface stress sensitivity and the S/N ratio of the slotted step cantilevers is improved by more than 32% and 22%, respectively, over its monolithic counterparts. © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.