A new cantilever system for gas and liquid sensing

A novel setup for gas and liquid sensing was developed and tested. It is based on both detection of frequency shift and of bending of micro-cantilevers to measure mass changes as well as viscosity changes. To drive the cantilevers new electrostatic and magnetic actuations were invented with a closed feed-back loop which forces the cantilever to oscillate always at its resonance frequency. The oscillation is detected via the beam-deflection technique. By measuring the DC signal of the photodiode the static bending of the cantilever can be monitored simultaneously. The closed feed-back loop propagates a very stable oscillation at the resonance frequency and gives a strong increase in the quality factor compared to a system without such feed-back loop. Furthermore, it is possible to operate this cantilever transducer system in liquids. These cantilever sensors hence, show the potential for use in easy-to-use and highly sensitive sensor systems for gas and liquid phase chemical and biochemical sensing.