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Emerald Article: Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu, Nezih Mrad

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To cite this document: Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu, Nezih Mrad, (2009),"Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors", Sensor Review, Vol. 29 Iss: 1 pp. 44 - 53 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02602280910926841 Downloaded on: 23-08-2012 References: This document contains references to 34 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 2 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 3331 times since 2009. *

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Research article

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors

Gino Rinaldi
Defence R&D Canada, Air Vehicles Research Section, Department of National Defence, National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, Canada

Muthukumaran Packirisamy and Ion Stiharu

Optical Microsystems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, ConCAVE Research Centre, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and

Nezih Mrad
Defence R&D Canada, Air Vehicles Research Section, Department of National Defence, National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, Canada
Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the simplicity and versatility of micro-cantilever based sensors and to present the inuence of added mass and stress on the frequency response of the sensor in order to determine the most suitable sensing domain for a given application. Design/methodology/approach The frequency response of micro-cantilevers depends not only on the applied mass and surface stress, but also on the mass position. An interpretation of the theoretical frequency results of the 1st and 2nd natural frequencies, for added mass, identies a nodal point for the 2nd natural frequency which demonstrates mass invariance. Hence, at this nodal point, the frequency response remains constant regardless of mass and may be used for identifying purely induced surface stress inuences on the micro-cantilevers dynamic response. The Rayleigh-Ritz energy method is used for the theoretical analysis. Theoretical results are compared with experimental results. Findings A graph of the 2nd natural frequency of micro-cantilevers with added mass demonstrates the variability of the frequency with mass position on the micro-cantilever. Of particular interest is the nodal point at which mass independence is revealed. This nodal point may be exploited to investigate purely stress-related inuences on the dynamic characteristics of micro-cantilever sensors, thereby eliminating such effects as reactant evaporation from the microcantilever sensor surface. In this regard, the nodal point of the 2nd natural frequency response is used to decouple mass-stress inuences. Research limitations/implications Owing to the micro-scale size of the micro-cantilevers, it may not be possible to apply mass or stress directly at the nodal point and to concentrate its inuence there. Hence, a certain amount of inuence due to mass-stress coupling may remain in the frequency responses observed. Practical implications Silicon micro-cantilevers can be easily shaped and sensitized to a variety of inuences. These qualities are highly regarded for sensor applications. The work presented herein, contributes to the optimization of micro-cantilever sensors dynamic response as a function of mass and surface stress inuences. The main criterion for choosing one or the other is based on the time for the surface reaction to take place between the sensing material and the target material. The results presented contribute to the performance optimization of micro-cantilever based medical and bio-sensors. Originality/value Surface stress effects are generally of much smaller magnitude than mass inuences; hence, through an investigation of the stress effects at the nodal point of the 2nd natural frequency it is possible to eliminate the mass inuence completely. At this position mass and stress inuences are decoupled and the sensor response can be uniquely quantied as a function of the applied stress. This is important for bio-medical and health monitoring applications in which changes to the applied mass or surface stress on a micro-cantilever sensor, may be readily observed through changes to the natural frequency response of the micro-cantilever. Keywords Frequency response, Cantilevers, Stress (materials), Sensors Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Generally, micro-cantilevers are very similar in design to macro-scale diving boards. The static and dynamic transverse deections are a function of the applied loads, the materials mechanical properties and the geometry of the microThe current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0260-2288.htm

cantilever (Rinaldi et al., 2005). For sensor applications, the position and distribution of the applied load will inuence the response of the micro-cantilever. These are important considerations particularly where optimized sensor sensitivity is required. Shown in Figure 1 is the static deection, under an applied load, of a micro-cantilever sensor. The deection is measured optically using a laser and position-sensitive-detector (PSD). Silicon has some interesting mechanical properties that can easily be exploited. These properties ensure that silicon-based micro-devices have uniform, stable and repeatable
q Her Majesty the Queen as represented by the Minister of National Defence, 2008

Sensor Review 29/1 (2009) 44 53 Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0260-2288] [DOI 10.1108/02602280910926841]

44

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

Figure 1 Micro-cantilever sensor

Laser Source PSD X

length value of 120 N/rad was obtained for the microcantilever sensors employed. The micro-cantilever length L, thickness h, and width w were measured using a microscope; whereas, Youngs modulus E and density r are values provided by the manufacturer.

4. Lumped mass model formulation

In the analytical model development, the micro-cantilever is represented by a lumped mass model, as shown in Figure 2, where K represents the natural stiffness of the elastic system, M its mass, Mapp the applied mass and y is the absolute displacement. In this formulation, damping effects are neglected, and the resulting equation of motion of the system is given by: y 1 M M app Ky 0 4.1 Rayleigh-Ritz energy method This analytical approach is an energy-based method in which the dynamic properties, are estimated and are a function of the potential, U, and kinetic, T, energies of the system. In general, the Rayleigh-Ritz energy approach is a simple way to analyze the exural response of a variety of microstructures such as plates and cantilever beams (Bhat, 1985; Lam et al., 1989; Mundkur et al., 1994). The assumed deection, y(x), at position x (x is the normalized length and varies between 0 and 1) is given by: n X ai fi x 2 yx
i1

Cantilever beam

characteristics, resulting in a long service life and high reliability (Petersen, 1982; Zhang et al., 1990). Silicon also has electro-thermal characteristics that enable silicon microcantilevers to be controlled in a quantiable manner either electrically, thermally, or in combination of both (Rinaldi et al., 2006b). In this work, a theoretical and experimental investigation into the effects of mass and surface stress variations on the dynamic response of micro-cantilevers is presented.

2. Micro-cantilever applications
Micro-cantilevers are found in a variety of applications ranging from micro-biological analysis to integrated micro-optical systems (Mullen et al., 1991; Burchman and Boyd, 1998; Gehring et al., 2000; Kawakatsu et al., 2002; Calleja et al., 2005; Amritsar et al., 2004; Chen et al., 2004). For micro-cantilever sensor applications, changes in the operational environment can be quantied through changes in static or dynamic deections of the micro-cantilever (Petersen, 1982; Greenwood, 1988; Pedersen, 2000). A great deal of research has been devoted to developing micro-biosensors that could provide real-time results (Calleja et al., 2003). Microcantilevers have been termed as ideal structures for analyzing DNA proles and sensing bio-reactions at the micro-level (Su et al., 2003; Amritsar et al., 2006). By applying a load (mass, surface stress, electrostatic or thermal) to the micro-cantilever, a change in its natural resonance frequency will result. It is this shift in resonance frequency that may be used as the sensing parameter for sensor applications.

where ai are the deection coefcients of the beam, fi x are the set of orthogonal polynomials (Bhat, 1985) satisfying the geometric boundary conditions, and n is the total number of polynomials. In order to incorporate the inuence of microfabrication limitations at the support boundary, the parent polynomial f0 x is constructed so as to satisfy the geometric boundary conditions for a micro-cantilever with free-free boundary support conditions. Subsequent members of the polynomials set are generated using the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization process (Arfken, 1985). For the analytical work presented herein, 6th order polynomials were employed. The natural frequencies of the system can be obtained from the Rayleigh quotient dened as: Figure 2 Lumped parameter model of an elastic system
Mapp

3. Microfabrication
Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), have in general, been manufactured using methods initially developed for the integrated circuits (IC) and semiconductor industry (Delapierre, 1989; Lee et al., 1997; Packirisamy et al., 2005b). However, the mechanical behaviour of microcantilevers must also take into account the inuences of microfabrication limitations at the support (Peeters, 1997; Rinaldi et al., 2004; Packirisamy et al., 2005a). In this work, the boundary support condition of the micro-cantilevers used was estimated by measuring the natural frequency of the unloaded micro-cantilever, and then tuning the analytical results to match those obtained experimentally (Rinaldi et al., 2007, 2006a). In this way, a rotational stiffness KR per unit 45
y

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

v2
where:

Maximum potential energy U Maximum kinetic energy T* T*

Similarly, the maximum kinetic energy of the micro-cantilever system includes the micro-cantilever beam kinetic energy TB and the kinetic energy due to the added mass TM, and is given by: T TB TM where TB is dened by: TB Z 1 1 2 v rAL yx2 dx 2 0 7a 7

T v2 and v is the natural frequency in radians-per-second.

3a

4.2 Dynamic analysis In the static and dynamic regimes (in this work only the dynamic properties will be investigated), several contributing factors will determine the deections, y(x), and natural frequencies, v, of the micro-cantilever, consisting principally of mechanical and material properties. The mechanical properties include boundary support conditions and geometry; whereas, the material properties include Youngs modulus of elasticity and the density of silicon. The maximum potential energy (U) of the system is calculated employing a two step iterative process and includes the beam energy (UB), boundary support spring energy (USS), surface stress energy (UStr), and is given by: U U B U SS U Str 4

where A is the cross-sectional area and TM is dened as: Z x2 1 yx2 dx 7b T M v2 m 2 x1 where m is the added mass. Minimizing the Rayleigh quotient of equation (3) with respect to all the deection coefcients:

U * 2 v2 T * 0 ai
yields the following eigensystem:
n X j1

U Bij U SSij 2 li T Bij T Mij aj 0

;i 1. . .n

In the theoretical formulation, the surface stress energy UStr is calculated as a function of the applied mass inuence on the exural properties of the micro-cantilever (iteration step one). The stress energy associated with the kth exural mode of a vibrating micro-cantilever with added mass is given by (Packirisamy, 2000): Z sd wh x2 00 Y k xY k xdx 5 U Str k L x1 where sd is the surface stress, x1 and x2 are the integration limits for the distributed stress, Yk(x) is the kth exural mode given by: ! n X ai fi x 5a Y k x
i1 k

where: U Bij Z
0 1

fi xfj xdx
0 0

00

00

9a 9b 9c 9d 9e

U SSij K * fi 0fj 0 K * fi 0fj 0 T R K* T 12K T L3 12K R L ; K* R Eh3 Eh3 Z 1 fi xfj xdx T Bij Z
0 x2

T Mij

fi xfj xdx
x1

where k 1; 2; . . .l # n: 00 Y k x is the second derivative with respect to x. The total potential energy U is recalculated with the value obtained for the stress energy UStr (iteration step two) and is given by: U * U B U SS 6

The solution of equation (9) yields the eigenvalues lk and mode shapes Yk of the micro-cantilever, where k 1; 2; . . .l # n: The kth eigenvalue is given by:

l2 k

12v2 rAL mL3 k Ewh3

10

where now U * includes the contribution of UStr for a given added mass and for a particular exural mode. The beam energy is dened as: Z Eh3 w 1 00 y x2 dx 6a UB 24L3 0 where 0 and 1 represent the xed and free ends (nondimensionalized) of the micro-cantilever, respectively. The potential energy associated with the boundary support springs is also given by: U SS 1 1 KR 0 K T y02 y 02 2 2 L2 6b

from which the kth natural frequency f k vk =2p is obtained in Hertz (Hz). The rst three eigenvalues for a microcantilever without added mass (m 0), obtained using this approach are 1.88, 4.69 and 7.85. These are in good agreement with published values such as found in Thomson (1988).

5. Theoretical results
The theoretical results of the variation of the normalized 1st and 2nd natural frequencies of a micro-cantilever as a result of mass variation and location along the normalized length are presented. Several mass sizes were used to emphasize the nodal points for the 2nd natural frequencies. The obtained theoretical normalized natural frequencies, as function of mass position and size, are shown in Figure 3. From these 46

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

Figure 3 Theoretical results for the effect of mass variation and position on the: (a) 1st natural frequency; (b) 2nd natural frequency
1.1 1 Normalized 1st Natural frequency Increasing mass 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Position of Added Mass (a) 1.1 1 Increasing mass 0.9 0.8 Node 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Position of Added Mass (b)

results, it can be seen that for the 1st natural frequency there is only a reduction in the micro-cantilever resonance frequency as the added mass is moved away from the xed end; whereas for the 2nd natural frequency there exists a nodal point at which the natural frequency returns to the same value as the case for m 0. At this nodal point it will be possible to differentiate between mass and stress effects by eliminating the mass inuences. The 1st exural mode is the one in which a change in reactant mass is detected quite readily, particularly towards the micro-cantilevers free-end. However, consideration must be given to evaporation effects for liquids in which the reactant mass is reduced due to evaporation to the surrounding environment. This is an important issue because the reduced mass due to evaporation will change the reference or base-line natural frequency of the sensor. Also, stiffening of the structure due to surface stress can be signicant enough to overcome the softening effect due to the 47

Normalized 2nd Natural frequency

added mass (Tomayo et al., 2006). Hence, if the sensor is operated in the 1st natural frequency, one must be very careful in selecting the appropriate position along the microcantilever in order to properly quantify mass effects or surface stress effects. If a target material is introduced into the sensing environment, the presence of the target material will be detected by a change in the natural frequency of the sensor due to the interaction (added mass and/or added stress) between the target material (what is to be sensed) and probe material (specically sensitized to target material) on the micro-cantilever surface. The surface stress will stiffen the response while the added mass will soften the response of the micro-cantilever (Tomayo et al., 2006). These two offsetting effects can cancel each other out and any reaction will not be detected. Similarly, evaporation of the sensors probe material will offset the base-line output reading of the sensor, and consequently the target material may not be

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

detected. Hence, it becomes critical to distinguish between evaporation (purely mass) and reaction (mass and/or stress) effects. In this work, in order to decouple the stress-mass (stiffening-softening) inuences, the nodal point of the 2nd natural frequency is proposed to eliminate evaporation and mass effects and the sensor output may be characterized solely as a function of the stress (stiffening) induced by the chemical-reaction of the sensor reactant in the presence of some target material.

6. Experimental results
The 1st and 2nd natural frequencies of the micro-cantilevers were measured employing an optical laser-Dopplervelocimetry based non-contact method (Rinaldi et al., 2006b). The experimental set-up used for the testing of the micro-cantilevers is shown in Figure 4. The micro-cantilevers used in this work were fabricated using a polyvinylideneuoride (PVDF) metalized lm (Goodfellow, 2007). The measured length L, width w and thickness h of the micro-cantilever are 9 mm, 900 mm and 110 mm, respectively. The PVDF material has a density and Youngs modulus of 1,760 kg/m3 and 2 GPa, respectively. They were mounted between two microscope slides that were bonded together, as shown in Figure 5. The test results were obtained by measuring the dynamic response of a micro-cantilever with a small added mass (5 102 6 kg) placed at normalized positions of 0.3, 0.6 and

0.75, respectively. A piezoelectric-shaker was also employed for the swept sinusoidal base excitation (Piezomechanik, 2006). The 1st and 2nd experimental natural frequencies were thus obtained and are shown in Figures 6 and 7. The center frequency (of the resonance bandwidth) obtained for each case is plotted and compared to the theoretical values in Figures 8 and 9, and in Table I. The experimental results of Figures 8 and 9 are in good agreement with the theoretical model. For sensor applications in which the micro-cantilever surface is employed and on which the sensor reactant is deposited, it is important to understand and quantify the effects of mass and surface stress individually. As an example, the evaporation of a given sensor probe material over time will reduce its mass and hence change its frequency response. Therefore, it may not be possible to distinguish between frequency response changes due to interactions between the sensor reactant and the target material, or reactant mass reduction due to evaporation. To illustrate this point a series of time lapse microscope side images of the evaporation of a 1 m L (1 102 6 kg) de-ionized water droplet on a microcantilever surface are shown in Figure 10. Shown in Figure 11 is the effect of mass reduction on a micro-cantilevers 1st natural frequency as a function of the evaporation of a droplet of water on its surface. The water droplet was placed at x 0.3. It is assumed that the contact area between the water droplet and the micro-cantilever surface remains constant due to the surface tension between the water and micro-cantilever surface (Erbil et al., 2002). The overall shift in frequency due

Figure 4 Experimental set-up and equipment: (a) Helium-Neon laser with diverging-converging lens train; (b) MEMS support post

Diverging lens Laser Converging lens Microscope

Mirror

XYZ plateform and support post (b)

(a)

Figure 5 Schematic top view of the micro-cantilever array conguration used in this work
Microscope slide

Micro-cantilevers Note: The micro-cantilevers are sandwiched between two microscope slides

48

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

Figure 6 The variation of the 1st natural frequency as a function of the position of the added mass

Added mass at 0.75

Added mass at 0.6

Added mass at 0.3

Micro-cantilever with no added mass

0.8 Normalized Amplitude

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230 250 270 290 Frequency (Hz)

Figure 7 The variation of the 2nd natural frequency as a function of the position of the added mass
1 Added mass at x = 0.3 Added mass at x = 0.6 Added mass at x = 0.75 Micro-cantilever with no added mass

Normalized Amplitude

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0 500

700

900

1,100

1,300

1,500

1,700

1,900

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 8 A comparison of the experimental center frequency responses as a function of the position of the added 5 102 6 kg mass on the normalized micro-cantilever length and the theoretical curve for the 1st natural frequency
300 Theory 1st Natural Frequency (Hz) 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Position of Added Mass 0.8 1 Experiment

49

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

Figure 9 A comparison of the experimental center frequency responses as a function of the position of the added 5 102 6 kg mass on the normalized micro-cantilever length and the theoretical curve for the 2nd natural frequency
1,600 2nd Natural Frequency (Hz)

1,400

1,200

1,000

800 Theory 600 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Position of Added Mass 0.8 1 Experiment

Table I Variation of the natural frequency (center frequency values) for the rst two resonance modes as a function of the load position on the microcantilever
Position of mass Resonance mode Mode 1 (Hz) Mode 2 (Hz) Note: NL no mass (NL) 252 1,555 (0.3) 220 700 (0.6) 128 1,080 (0.75) 90 1,548

Figure 10 Time lapse (3 min between each) microscope side images of the evaporation of a water droplet on a micro-cantilever surface

Micro-cantilever t=0

t = 15min

to the evaporation observed in Figure 11 is 2.83 per cent with a 0.47 Hz/min rate of change. For enzymatic reactions such as between hydrogen-peroxide (H2O2) and horse-radish-peroxide several hundred seconds are required for the reactants to fully engage (Amritsar et al., 2004). Hence, the effects of evaporation must be considered when measuring either the static or dynamic characteristics of the sensor in which the presence of some target material is to be detected, particularly in the 1st mode. The theoretical effect of surface stress is presented at 2nd natural frequency mass invariant nodal point. The surface stress 50

sd is varied between 10 and 100 MPa (enzymatic reaction stress values sd of 50 MPa have been reported (Amritsar et al., 2006)) and the surface stress energy as given in equation (5) is calculated and normalized (UStr(i)/UStr(max)). A virtual 5 102 6 kg mass (probe and target material) is distributed between x1 and x2 (mass radius ,0.8 mm) and centered symmetrically about x 0.8 as shown in Figure 12. The results for the shift in 2nd natural frequency due to the introduced stress are shown in Figure 13. The changes are due to the stiffening effect resulting from the reaction between the sensor probe material and the target material on the

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

Figure 11 The variation of the 1st natural frequency of a micro-cantilever as a function of the evaporation of a water droplet on its surface
248 247 1st Natural Frequency (Hz) 246 245 244 243 242 241 240 239 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Time (min) Micro-cantilever without water droplet

Figure 12 Schematic side-view of the distributed mass at x 0.8 along the normalized length of a cantilever
X = 0.8 X1 X2

Figure 13 The shift of the 2nd natural frequency as a function of the applied stress sd
2.5

2nd Natural Frequency Shift (Hz)

1.5

0.5

0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Normalized Stress Energy 0.8 1

micro-cantilever surface. However, if the reaction time is slow (water drop evaporation after 6 min resulted in 3 Hz shift in 1st mode), the evaporation of the probe and target material can cause a greater change in frequency than the reaction 51

itself, and the target material may not be detected using the 1st natural frequency response. Conversely, for the 2nd natural frequency, with the reactants placed at the nodal point x 0.8, the effects of

Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

Sensor Review Volume 29 Number 1 2009 44 53

mass and/or evaporation can be eliminated and any observed changes in frequency are solely due to the surface stress resulting from bio- or chemical interactions. Variations due to mass can be readily monitored by employing the 1st natural frequency if the reaction time is fast and the evaporation rate is not critical. The nodal point of the 2nd natural frequency can be used to monitor surface stress effects when the reaction time is relatively long in comparison to mass effects. Therefore, two sensing domains can be dened for microcantilever sensors: the mass domain and the stress domain. The most suitable approach for a given application has to be carefully contemplated.

7. Conclusions
An investigation into MEMS based micro-cantilever sensors has been presented. These types of devices nd many applications in which the static and dynamic behaviour can be exploited for sensor applications. It was shown that both mass and surface stress inuence the natural frequency response of the micro-cantilever. Hence, in order to differentiate and decouple these offsetting effects, the nodal point for the variation of the 2nd natural frequency as a function of the position of the applied mass was exploited for its massinvariance. Thus, at this position, the observed changes in the 2nd natural frequency are uniquely due to surface stress. The results obtained demonstrate that the 2nd natural frequency nodal point is better suited for surface stress measurements, while the 1st natural frequency is more sensitive to mass measurements. The experimental results presented were in good agreement with the Rayleigh-Ritz energy formulation based on a lumped parameter model. It is these particular qualities of micro-cantilevers, combined with ease of design and fabrication, makes them very versatile when it comes to micro-sensor applications.

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Simple and versatile micro-cantilever sensors Gino Rinaldi, Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Ion Stiharu and Nezih Mrad

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Corresponding author
Gino Rinaldi can be contacted at: gino.rinaldi@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

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