Fabrication and characterization of a polymeric microcantilever with an encapsulated hotwire CVD polysilicon piezoresistor

We demonstrate a novel photoplastic nanoelectromechanical device that includes an encapsulated polysilicon piezoresistor. The temperature limitation that typically prevents deposition of polysilicon films on polymers was overcome by employing a hotwire CVD process. In this paper, we report the use of this process to fabricate and characterize a novel polymeric cantilever with an embedded piezoresistor. This device exploits the low Young's modulus of organic polymers and the high gauge factor of polysilicon. The fabricated device fits into the cantilever holder of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and can be used in conjunction with the AFM's liquid cell for detecting the adsorption of biochemicals. It enables differential measurement while preventing biochemicals from interfering with measurements using the piezoresistor. The mechanical and electromechanical characterization of the device is also reported in this paper