No abstract

An astigmatic detection system is constructed with a modified digital-versatile-disk optical head. This system, with a detecting spot of ∼1μm, can simultaneously measure the vertical displacements and two-dimensional angular tilts of micromachined elements. It can detect thermal vibrations of microfabricated cantilevers with noise levels of 1.3pmHz−1∕2 for the linear displacement and of 3.2nradHz−1∕2 for angular displacements over a frequency range from 1to800kHz. The detecting frequency can even reach beyond 100MHz if high-speed electronic devices are adopted. Further optimization of the system will broaden its applications in diverse technological fields.

 Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.  You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain  You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

Sensors are crucial in many daily operations including security, environmental control, human diagnostics and patient monitoring. Screening and online monitoring require reliable and high-throughput sensing. We report on the demonstration of a high-throughput label-free sensor platform utilizing cantilever based sensors. These sensors have often been acclaimed to facilitate highly parallelized operation. Unfortunately, so far no concept has been presented which offers large datasets as well as easy liquid sample handling. We use optics and mechanics from a DVD player to handle liquid samples and to read-out cantilever deflection and resonant frequency. Also, surface roughness is measured. When combined with cantilever deflection the roughness is discovered to hold valuable additional information on specific and unspecific binding events. In a few minutes, 30 liquid samples can be analyzed in parallel, each by 24 cantilever-based sensors. The approach was used to detect the binding of streptavidin and antibodies.