Trilayered ceramic-metal-polymer microcantilevers with dramatically enhanced thermal sensitivity

  • Yen Hsi Lin
  • , Michael E. McConney
  • , Melburne C. Lemieux
  • , Sergiy Peleshanko
  • , Chaoyang Jiang
  • , Srikanth Singamaneni
  • , Vladimir V. Tsukruk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

The preparation of trilayered ceramic-metal-polymer microcantilevers with enhanced thermal sensitivity, was investigated. With sensitive optical or electrostatic readouts, the microcantilever-based devices can show resolution of several tens of milliKelvins with thermal sensitivity reaching 100 nmK -1 for microcantilevers with lengths around 100 μm. Rectangular and V-shaped silicon nitride microcantilevers with lengths of 200 and 310 μm and spring constants in the range 0.02-0.03 N m-1. The silicon nitride-gold microcantilever bends downward by about 100 nm owing to the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients of gold and silicon nitride. The polymer-brush layers were reinforced with carbon nanotubes and metal nanoparticles. These trilayered polymer-metal-ceramic microcantilevers with dramatically enhanced thermal sensitivity can serve as the basis for the next generation of uncooled IR-sensor arrays with thermal and spatial resolution many times higher.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1157-1161
Number of pages5
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2 2006

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