Design and fabrication of in-plane resonant microcantilevers

An in-plane resonant bimetal microcantilever based on thermal actuation mechanism was developed utilizing the photolithography technique. The microcantilever structure consists of a platform, a long narrow anchor, and a U-shape actuation loop. Niobium and gold are used as materials for fabrication of the microcantilever. In the cantilever design the shortcoming of low actuation frequency was overcome by separating the thermal actuator part and the microcantilever part. According to the dynamic property tests, the in-plane resonant frequency of our microcantilevers is one order of magnitude higher than the out-of-plane one. With further optimizing the design, our microcantilevers may have applications as actuators and biosensors.