Bio And IR Detecting Cantilever-based Sensors With Improved Readouts

Cantilevers are commonly used in MEMS as simple sensor elements for transducing environmental stimuli. However a key challenge in commercializing these cantilevers is the readout design. The traditional readout approach is nontrivial as each element needs to be addressable and the readouts generally require either an optical setup or a custom circuit attached to each cantilever. The optical approach typically uses large remote expensive technology to input light and measure the reflection. The circuit approach must be integrated with the MEMS fabrication process and interfaced into an array. To address these cantilever readout challenges researchers at UC Berkeley have developed several readout designs that maximize the sensitivity of the sense array without sacrificing available space for the sense electronics. In addition to minimized space requirements these readout designs each have advantages such as improved noise suppression / cancellation.