III–V nitride microcantilever as a displacement sensor

Abstract

The application of gated piezoresitor (or `piezotransistor') embedded GaN microcantilever utilizing unique properties of AlGaN/GaN Heterojunction Field Effect Transistor (HFET) to very significantly enhance the device performance in order to transduce femtoscale displacement have been demonstrated. This novel technology offers several orders higher sensitivity than state-of-the-art and enabled detection of minute explosive in open ambient by photoacoustic spectroscopy.