Chemomechanical actuation of a microcantilever beam induced by biomolecular binding such as DNA hybridization and antibody-antigen binding is an important principle useful in biosensing applications. As the magnitude of the forces involved is very small, increasing the sensitivity of the microcantilever beams involved is a priority. In this paper we are considering to achieve this by structural variation of the cantilevers. Merely decreasing the thickness of the microcantilever may improve the sensitivity, but it gives rise to the disadvantages of 'arching' and lesser reliability due to greater probability of defects during fabrication. We consider a 'ribbed' cantilever that eliminates the disadvantages while improving the sensitivity simultaneously. Simulations for validation have been performed using the finite element analysis software ANSYS 8.0. The simulations reveal that a ribbed microcantilever is almost as sensitive as a thin cantilever and has relatively very low arching effect. Simulations also reveal that higher the arching lower is the sensitivity.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.