Characterization of microcantilevers solely by frequency response acquisition

• Published in: Journal of micromechanics and microengineering Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 785 - 791
• Main Authors: McFarland, Andrew W, Poggi, Mark A, Bottomley, Lawrence A, Colton, Jonathan S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.04.2005; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Mechanical engineering. Machine design; Mechanical instruments, equipment and techniques; Microelectronic fabrication (materials and surfaces technology); Micromechanical devices and systems; Physics; Precision engineering, watch making; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Elastic constant; Measurement; Scanning electron microscopy; Elastic modulus; Deformation modulus; Bernoulli Euler model; Experimental study; Modeling; Cantilever beam; Added mass; Poisson ratio; Resonance frequency; Frequency response
• ISSN: 0960-1317; 1361-6439
• DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/15/4/016

A method is presented to determine the geometry of tipless microcantilevers by measuring the resonance frequencies of at least one of their bending, lateral and torsional resonance modes, and having knowledge of the beam's elastic modulus, Poisson's ratio and density. Once the geometry is known, the beam's stiffness and mass can be calculated. Measurement of multiple modes allows for multiple estimates of cantilever geometry. Multiple data points from the experimental results show that this approach yields dimensional values accurate to roughly 2.5% as compared to SEM-determined length, width and thickness. Stiffness values determined with this new technique are roughly 4.7% and 6.5% less than two existing characterization methods (i.e., Sader's method and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory predictions), and roughly 16% greater than Hutter and Bechhoefer's stiffness determination method.