Tunable microcantilever sensors with embedded piezotransistors

Microcantilevers with embedded piezotransistors formulate simple and sensitive MEMS sensors. In this reported work, three different p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (PMOSFET) embedded microcantilevers are fabricated and their responses to physical displacements are evaluated. Effects of gate bias on the drain current change and device sensitivity are investigated. Specifically, a wide tuning range above 200% is demonstrated for the PMOSFET with the width/length ratio of 5 within a gate bias span of 6%V. Such tunable feature can be very useful to compensate process variations and optimise device performance for maximum sensitivity.