An integrated system of microcantilever arrays with carbon nanotube tips for imaging, sensing, and 3D nanomanipulation: Design and control

This paper presents the design and control of massively parallel microcantilever arrays with multi-walled carbon nanotube tips. The integrated system can make a powerful tool for imaging, sensing, and 3D nanomanipulation of nanoparticles and biological samples. A sensor design is discussed using carbon nanotube tip as nanoelectrode for electrochemistry. A distributed parameter system model has been developed to study its dynamic behavior. Simulations have been performed for carbon nanotube tipped microcantilevers of three different dimensions. Their open-loop and closed-loop performances are compared to study their feasibility for life science applications. It is shown via simulations that with carefully selected dimensions they can demonstrate an excellent capability for nanomanipulation of samples and tapping mode operation for imaging under a simple PID controller.