Chemical sensors based on piezoresistive cantilever array

U-shaped and rectangle piezoresistive cantilever arrays have been designed with the analysing results of stress, noise and sensitivity of the cantilevers. Based on silicon micromachining technology, the piezoresistive cantilevers were fabricated by using polysilicon as the piezoresistive materials. With the measurement results of noise and sensitivity, the Hooge factor is calculated to be 3 x 10(-3), the gauge factor is 27, and the minimum detectable deflection of piezoresistive cantilevers are calculated to be 1.0 nm for rectangle cantilever and 0.5 nm for the U-shaped cantilever at a 6 V bias voltage and a 1000 Hz measurement bandwidth. Using polymer-coated cantilevers as individual sensors, their responses to water vapour and ammonia were tested by measuring their output voltage signals. The measured results show that the sensor sensitivity to ammonia can reach a few ppm and the sensor responses are quick.