Arrow Shaped Microcantilever Beams for Enhancing Mass Sensitivity

In this work, we present design and analysis of microcantilever beams based on arrow shape for enhanced sensitivity of mass detection. The proposed microcantilever beams were fabricated from silicon dioxide material using wet bulk micromachining in 25 wt% TMAH at 75 ·C, Vibration analysis of the microcantilever beams were carried out using laser vibrometer. Further, a FEM software, ANSYS, was used to analyze the resonance frequency and mass sensitivity of proposed microcantilever beams. In addition, effects of rectangular step length and width on the resonance frequency of proposed microcantilever beams have been investigated. The fundamental resonance frequency and mass sensitivity of a proposed microcantilever design are found to be improved by 48% and 283%, respectively, as compared to those of conventional rectangular profile microcantilever beam.