Avoiding transduction-induced heating in suspended microchannel resonators using piezoelectricity

Abstract

Calorimetry of single biological entities remains elusive. Suspended microchannel resonators (SMRs) offer excellent performance for real-time detection of various analytes and could hold the key to unlocking pico-calorimetry experiments. However, the typical readout techniques for SMRs are optical-based, and significant heat is dissipated in the sensor, altering the measurement and worsening the frequency noise. In this manuscript, we demonstrate for the first time full on-chip piezoelectric transduction of SMRs on which we focus a laser Doppler vibrometer to analyze its effect. We demonstrate that suddenly applying the laser to a water-filled SMR causes a resonance frequency shift, which we attribute to a local increase in temperature. When the procedure is repeated at increasing flow rates, the resonance frequency shift diminishes, indicating that convection plays an important role in cooling down the device and dissipating the heat induced by the laser. We also show that the frequency stability of the device is degraded by the laser source. In comparison to an optical readout scheme, a low-dissipative transduction method such as piezoelectricity shows greater potential to capture the thermal properties of single entities.

Measuring nanoparticles in liquid with attogram resolution using a microfabricated glass suspended microchannel resonator

“…In principle, we could expect a reduction in the Allan deviation when the liquid is present inside the cantilever, due to the mitigation of these laser-induced temperature fluctuations with the increased thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the presence of the liquid also brings a reduction in the thermal time constant of the device 23 . Thus, laser-induced variations in the resonant frequency can be too slow to be seen in the measured Allan deviation when the cantilever is empty.…”

Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Micro Coriolis Mass Flow Sensor Driven by PZT Thin Film Actuators

“…Future research may focus on using piezoelectric transducers for both actuation and readout of the sensor [18], development of an integrated readout method with higher phase sensitivity in case of swing mode actuation, and optimization of the piezoelectric actuators for larger actuation amplitudes.…”

“…However, most of the reported devices have simple structures like cantilevers [13], [14] or membranes [15], [16]. The integration of piezoelectric materials on more complicated structures like a suspended microfluidic channel is still rare [17], [18]. We have reported preliminary measurements on a micro Coriolis mass flow sensor driven by integrated lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film actuators in [19], using swing mode actuation and an optical readout.…”

Adaptive under-actuated control for capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducer based on an accurate nonlinear modeling

“…In recent decades, advances in micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) including performance enhancement, low power consumption and low fabrication cost have attracted remarkable attention to the use of microdevices in various applications such as micromirrors [1], micro-switches [2], microresonators [3,4], pressure sensors [5], energy harvesters [6,7], gas sensors [8] and capacitive structures [9]. Nevertheless, among various microdevices, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers due to their various benefits including reliable fabrication processes with ease and lower cost, integration with signal processing electronics, efficient performance, low impedance, higher resolution and high transduction coefficient became as an effective technology to overcome many constraints associated with traditional transducers and it can be considered as a primary candidate for next generation of transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves [10][11][12].…”