An optimised silicon piezoresistive microcantilever sensor for surface stress studies

Surface stress is a versatile and efficient means to study various physical, chemical, biochemical and biological processes. This work focuses on developing high sensitive piezoresistive microcantilever designs to study surface stress. The cantilevers are made of silicon with rectangular holes at their base that also circumscribe a piezoresistor sensing element. To find the optimum design, the effects of change in cantilever width, rectangular hole length and type of dopant on mechanical properties like deflection, frequency and maximum stress are characterised using finite element analysis software. The surface stress sensitivity characteristics of the different cantilever designs is ascertained by applying a surface stress on their top surfaces. Results show that the sensitivity is increased by increasing the cantilever width as well as the length of the hole and the sensitivity of p-type designs is more than two times the n-type.