MICROCANTILEVER SENSOR WITH BIMORPH ACTUATION AND PIEZORESISTIVE READ OUT

摘要

There is provided a method of monitoring one or more specified reactions in a fluid medium sample using a thermal signature comprising providing at least one micro cantilever sensor said micro cantilever sensor comprising at least two materials having different coefficients of thermal expansion and having a heater and piezo resistive sensor integrated therein calibrating the at least one micro cantilever response to thermal changes to form a calibrated micro cantilever response characteristic starting the specified reaction in the fluid medium sample pulsing the heater with one or more electrical pulses to induce heat generation in the micro cantilever sampling the output of the integrated piezo resistive sensor to characterise a response of the micro cantilever during the specified reaction in the fluid medium and subtracting the calibrated micro cantilever response characteristic from the sampled output to determine a characteristic of the one or more specified reactions in the fluid medium sample. There is also provided a method for measuring at least one thermal property of a fluid medium sample and a fluid medium sample reaction detection apparatus.