Axially stretched nano-thick piezoresistive silicon clamped-beams to sense specific-reaction-induced double-side surface-stress with much higher sensitivity than cantilevers

Presented is a novel silicon piezoresistive double-clamped beam with nano-thickness. It senses double-side surface-stress induced by molecular self-assembly or specific bio/chemical reaction. For the first time, both theoretical analysis and experiments results indicate that, when the thickness is down-scaled into nano-scale, the sensitivity of the clamped-beam piezoresistive self-sensing beam will be significantly higher than that of conventional piezoresistive micro-cantilever sensors.