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Published August 2011 | public
Journal Article

50 nm thick AlN film-based piezoelectric cantilevers for gravimetric detection

Abstract

Due to low power operation, intrinsic integrability and compatibility with CMOS processing, aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric (PZE) microcantilevers are a very attractive paradigm for resonant gas sensing. In this paper, we theoretically investigate their ultimate limit of detection and enunciate design rules for performance optimization. The reduction of the AlN layer thickness is found to be critical. We further report the successful development and implementation in cantilever structures with a 50 nm thick active PZE AlN layer. Material characterizations demonstrate that the PZE e_(31) coefficient can remain as high as 0.8 C m^(−2). Electrically transduced frequency responses of the fabricated devices are in good agreement with analytical predictions. Finally, we demonstrate the excellent frequency stability with a 10^(−8) minimum Allan deviation. This exceptionally low noise operation allows us to expect a limit of detection as low as 53 zg µm^(−2) and demonstrate the strong potential of AlN PZE microcantilevers for high resolution gas detection.

Additional Information

© 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd. Received 13 December 2010, in final form 23 May 2011. Published 12 July 2011. The fabrication of the experimental devices has been performed within the Plateforme des Technologie Amont (PTA) clean room. The authors also acknowledge the financial support of the Fulbright Doctoral Program and of the Carnot NEMS.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023