Double sided surface stress cantilever sensor

Micromachined cantilevers, originally developed for use in atomic force microscopy, are gaining more and more interest as biochemical sensors, where the way in which the binding of chemical species changes the mechanical properties of the cantilever is utilized. Mass and stiffness changes are measured on resonating structures (Cherian and Thundat 2002 Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 2219-21 Gupta et al 2004 Appl. Phys. Lett. 84 1976-8), whereas changes in surface energy from the binding event are measured as static deflections of cantilevers (Savran et al 2004 Anal. Chem. 76 3194-8). The latter measurement type is referred to as a surface stress sensor and it is the description of a new and more sensitive cantilever surface stress measurement technique that is the topic of this paper.