Dimension-Scaling of Microcantilevers Resonators

Abstract

In order to analyze the influence of the dimension-scaling on the sensitivity of a cantilever, a set of microcantilevers resonators were designed, fabricated and subsequently scaled. The cantilevers proposed are piezoelectrically actuated and the movement detection is done by four piezoresistors in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. As expected the experimental results show improvement of the resonance frequency and quality factor with the dimension-scaling. For example, an structure with dimensions in the range of 400x300mum2 show the first mode of resonance frequency about 98 kHz and the quality factor around 680 and for this structure scaled with dimensions in the range of 200x150mum2 the resonance frequency and the quality factor was 354 kHz and 950 respectively.