Resonance Frequency Change in Microcantilever-Based Sensor due to Humidity Variation

Abstract

Microcantilever-based sensors have attracted interest in the last decade because of their small size, rapid detection and high sensitivity. This sensor can be applied in the many fields, i.e. physics, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, medical, and environment. In this paper, we describe microcantilever-based sensor for environmental monitoring, especially for a humidity detection. This sensor was operated in dynamic mode where a change in mass or spring constant of the microcantilever provides the resonance frequency change. Here, a change of humidity is detected by the resonance frequency and the amplitude changes. It is found that the increase in the humidity causes the decreasing the resonance frequency but increasing the amplitude. This result opens up the possibility of the humidity detection using microcantilever-based sensor.