| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| MEMS and NEMS | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session MN-TuM |
| Session: | Materials Processing and Characterization for MEMS/NEMS |
| Presenter: | G. Hähner, University of St Andrews, UK |
| Authors: | G. Hähner, University of St Andrews, UK G.V. Lubarsky, University of St Andrews, UK |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Cantilever based technologies have seen an ever increasing level of interest since the atomic force microscope (AFM) was introduced two decades ago. Most recent developments employ microcantilevers as stand-alone sensors by exploiting the dependence of their oscillating properties on external parameters such as adsorbed mass, or the density and the viscosity of a liquid environment. In this context higher flexural modes have attracted significant attention due to their high sensitivity towards forces and mass changes. While some effort has been devoted to the determination of the static and the first dynamic spring constant, there are currently no equivalent simple yet reliable methods to determine the values of higher modes experimentally. We demonstrate how the spring constants of higher flexural modes of microcantilevers can be determined experimentally with high precision. We recently presented a fast and simple method to measure the dynamic spring constant of the first mode in a non-destructive and non-invasive fashion.1 The method is based on comparing the spring constants of the cantilever to a known spring constant by measuring the change in the resonance frequency of the flexural modes as a function of the fluid flow through a microchannel. Here we will show that the same approach can also be applied to higher flexural modes. Results for both rectangular and V-shaped cantilevers will be presented and compared to theory.
1 G.V. Lubarsky and G. Hähner Rev. Sci. Instr. 78, 095102 (2007).