Nanomechanical Cantilever Array Sensors

Microfabricated cantilever sensors have attracted much interest in recent years as devices for the fast and reliable detection of small concentrations of molecules in air and solution. In addition to application of such sensors for gas and chemical-vapor sensing, for example as an artificial nose, they have also been employed to measure physical properties of tiny amounts of materials in miniaturized versions of conventional standard techniques such as calorimetry, thermogravimetry, weighing, photothermal spectroscopy, as well as for monitoring chemical reactions such as catalysis on small surfaces. In the past few years, the cantilever-sensor concept has been extended to biochemical applications and as an analytical device for measurements of biomaterials. Because of the label-free detection principle of cantilever sensors, their small size and scalability, this kind of device is advantageous for diagnostic applications and disease monitoring, as well as for genomics or proteomics purposes. The use of microcantilever arrays enables detection of several analytes simultaneously and solves the inherent problem of thermal drift often present when using single microcantilever sensors, as some of the cantilevers can be used as sensor cantilevers for detection, and other cantilevers serve as passivated reference cantilevers that do not exhibit affinity to the molecules to be detected.