Effect of loading rates on polymer micropillar based force transducers

Polymeric sensor arrays have been extensively used to measure cellular forces and offer new insight into the study of cellular mechanics. Previous studies have been focused on using transducers in static domain and assumed elastic beam theory as a force conversion model. Neglecting the inherent viscoelastic behavior of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and low aspect ratios of micropillars compromised the accuracy of these devices. In this work, a more in-depth viscoelastic Timoshenko beam model was introduced. We studied chemical stimulated contractions of cardiac myocytes and found that the loading rate has a considerable influence on the sensitivity of the sensor arrays.