FABRICATION AND TESTING OF POLYMERIC MICROCANTILEVER BASED MEMS BIOSENSORS

Abstract

Prototypes of polymeric microcantilever based MEMS sensors were developed and tested in two different operation modes for molecule attachment bio-sensing. Polymeric micro cantilevers and cantilever arrays were fabricated from Kapton film by laser cutting and standard clean room techniques. In static mode test, the bending response of the cantilevers induced by the surface stress generated by the formation of a thiol self-assembly monolayer (SAM) on one surface of the cantilever was measured. The stress was calculated and compared to the result obtained from test on Silicon cantilevers. In dynamic mode test, a new theory to describe the resonant frequency shift upon formation of the thiol SAM was presented. The resonant frequency of the cantilevers and the frequency shift on SAM formation were measured to test the theory. A problem of low Q factor was discovered and is being addressed.