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In this paper, we present a pH measurement method that uses a microcantilever-array-based biosensor system. It is composed of microcantilever array, liquid cell, micro syringe pump, laser diode array, position sensitive detector, data acquisition device, and data processing software. Four microcantilevers are functionalized with pH-sensitive MHA(mercaptohexadecanoic acid) as a probe, while three microcantilevers are functionalized with HDT(hexadecane thiol) as reference. We prepare PBS(phosphate buffered saline) solutions of different pH and inject them into the liquid cell with a predefined volumetric speed at regular time intervals. The functionalized mircocantilevers in the liquid cell deflect as a self-assembled monolayer on the microcantilever binds with probe molecules in the solution. The difference in deflection between the MHA-covered probe microcantilever and the HDT-covered reference microcantilever was used to compensate for thermal drift. The deflection difference clearly increases with increasing pH in the solution. It was shown that when the pH values of the PBS solutions are high, there were large variations in the deflection of microcantilevers, whereas there were small variations for low pH value. The experimental results show that the microcantilever array functionalized with MHA and HDT can detect pH value with good repeatability.

A good designed MEMS microphone is very important for attaining good characteristics of sensitivity and frequency bandwidth with flat response. So we performed multi-physics finite element analysis that can predict an electro-mechanical behavior of MEMS microphone. Then we fabricated the well-designed MEMS microphone with using micromachining technique. The fabricated MEMS microphone was consisted with low stress poly-silicon membrane and electroplated back-plate. The simulation of sensitivity and frequency response of packaged MEMS microphone was carried out. The simulation results show the acoustic sensitivity of -40.91 dB and the cutoff frequency of 79.4 kHz, respectively.

Biomimetic artificial basilar membrane being a core part of artificial cochlear requires performance evaluation through aging test. To evaluate the aging properties of PVDF piezoelectric membrane used for artificial basilar membrane, its mechanical properties such as tensile strength and elastic modulus and piezoelectric property such as piezoelectric constant were measured. The aging test conditions and acceleration constants were calculated based on Arrhenius model. The changes in tensile strengths and elastic moduli measured were less than 10~20% after aging test equivalent for 10 years. The piezoelectric constants were decreased drastically to 80% of its initial value in the early stage of the aging test and expected to decrease slowly down to 65% over 10 years. The experimental results show the reliability of totally implantable novel artificial cochlear and will contribute its commercialization.