A Versatile Mass-Sensing Platform With Tunable Nonlinear Self-Excited Microcantilevers

Mouro, J ORCID: 0000-0002-2572-0974, Tiribilli, B ORCID: 0000-0001-9851-1850 and Paoletti, P ORCID: 0000-0001-6131-0377 (2018) A Versatile Mass-Sensing Platform With Tunable Nonlinear Self-Excited Microcantilevers IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, 17 (4). pp. 751-762. ISSN 1536-125X, 1941-0085

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Abstract

A versatile mass-sensing platform based on the nonlinear dynamical response of a microcantilever embedded in a self-excitation feedback loop is proposed. It is experimentally shown that the delay imposed in the feedback loop by an adjustable phase-shifter can be used to finely tune this system to work in three different modalities, according to the desired mass sensing application: 1) as a continuous mass sensor, where the oscillation frequency smoothly responds to changes in the mass added to the resonator; 2) as a threshold sensor, where a sudden change in the oscillation frequency is triggered by an arbitrarily small change of mass added to the cantilever; and 3) as a stable microresonator, whose oscillation frequency is almost not affected by environmental conditions, such as changes in added mass, or in density/viscosity of the surrounding fluid. This variety of dynamical responses was registered for a wide range of added masses, in the form of beads individually attached to the cantilever. A complete analytical model to explain the observed experimental results is derived and shows a strong agreement with the measured data. The high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, as well as the threshold and stable sensing modalities obtained with this closed-loop technique, are not available in the current open-loop microcantilever-based mass sensors.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Mass-sensing, nonlinear oscillations, self-excited microcantilever
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	09 May 2018 08:46
Last Modified:	24 Jan 2026 01:41
DOI:	10.1109/TNANO.2018.2829404
Open Access URL:	https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8352046/#
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3021103
Disclaimer:	The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate.