Immunosensor utilizing a shear mode thin film bulk acoustic sensor

An AlN thin film electro-acoustic resonator has been fabricated employing a reactive sputtering process for the deposition of an AlN thin film with inclined c-axis for excitation of the shear mode for operation in liquid media. The main objective is to investigate the efficiency of the micro-fluidic channel system integrated in the silicon wafer underneath the AlN resonator. A comparative study between the shear mode thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) using a competitive antibody–antigen association process for detection of drug molecules is presented.