Variable width based stepped MEMS cantilevers for micro or pico level biosensing and effective switching

Abstract

High performance and sensitivity of a microcantilever beam is much demanded in biosensing and needs accurate measurement of tip deflection under very low range of analyte adhesion. Constant geometry based rectangular microcantilevers are not good enough for micro or pico level triglyceride (TG) and glucose detection. With the same surface area, length and thickness, the proposed variable width based stepped microcantilever beams exhibit nearly twice or thrice more tip deflection corresponding to the same TG and glucose molecular pressure. With the less pull-in voltage requirement, such proposed stepped microcantilever beam based switches can be utilized in RF reconfigurable antenna for altering its operating frequency and radiation properties. Several configurations of proposed microcantilevers have been studied and analyzed for finding the optimal design with better deflection sensitivity. This paper also encompasses the mathematical modeling of proposed single and double stepped microcantilever beam, which exhibits good agreement with the simulation.