Rotational Mode MEMS Resonators for Direct Bio/Chemical Sensing in Liquid

Funded by the State of Colorado Office of Economic Development

6.aThe main goal of this project is to use Micro-electromechanical resonant devices with their electronic readout capability as highly sensitive biomolecular sensors. Adsorption of molecules on the resonator surfaces increases the mass of the resonating plate resulting in a drop in the resonant frequency of the resonator. This could be used to detect and measure smallest concentrations of target bio-molecules. However, the main bottleneck for using MEMS resonators in biosensing applications is the excessive viscosity when operating such devices in liquid. Thermally actuated as well as thin-film piezoelectric on substrate (TPoS) rotational mode disk resonators, demonstrating quality factors as high as 300 and 100 in liquid media, respectively, have been developed and successfully implemented for direct real-time detection of biomolecules. Since all the surfaces of such structures in the resonant mode of interest slide in parallel to the liquid interface, they have minimal interaction with the surrounding liquid. This has been shown to significantly reduce the energy loss into the liquid as well as mass loading by the liquid.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
6.b

  1. A. Iqbal, J. Chapin, E. Mehdizadeh, B. Purse, and S. Pourkamali, “Resonant response validation of micro-channel encapsulated disk resonators via fluorescent imaging,” International Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology, 2013.
  2. E. Mehdizadeh, J. Chapin, J. Gonzales, R. Abdolvand, B. Purse, and S. Pourkamali, “Response characterization of piezoelectric rotational mode disk Resonant biomolecular Sensors,” International Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology, 2013.
  3. A. Iqbal, J. Chapin, E. Mehdizadeh, A. Rahafrooz, B. Purse, S. Pourkamali, “Real-Time Bio-Sensing Using Micro-Channel Encapsulated Thermal-Piezoresistive Rotational Mode Disk Resonators,” IEEE Sensors Conference, 2012.
  4. E. Mehdizadeh, J. Chapin, J. Gonzales, A. Rahafrooz, B. Purse, R. Abdolvand, and S. Pourkamali, “Direct Detection of Biomolecules in Liquid Media Using Piezoelectric Rotational Mode Disk Resonators,” IEEE Sensors Conference, 2012.
  5. E. Mehdizadeh, J. Gonzales, A. Rahafrooz, R. Abdolvand, and S. Pourkamali, “Piezoelectric rotational mode disk resonators for liquid viscosity monitoring,” Hilton Head 2012, solid-state sensor, actuator and Microsystems workshop.
  6. A. Rahafrooz, and S. Pourkamali, “Characterization of Rotational Mode Disk Resonator Quality Factors in Liquid,” 2011 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (IFCS 2011).
  7. A. Rahafrooz, and S. Pourkamali, “Rotational Mode Disk Resonators for High-Q Operation in Liquid,” IEEE Sensors Conference, 2010.