Weighing nanoparticles and viruses using suspended nanochannel resonators

Author

Lee, J. ; Chen, G. ; Shen, W. ; Payer, K. ; Burg, T.P. ; Rodriguez, W. ; Toner, M. ; Manalis, S.R.

Author_Institution

Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

23-27 Jan. 2011

Firstpage

992

Lastpage

994

Abstract

We have batch fabricated suspended nanochannel resonators (SNRs) to improve the mass resolution of suspended microchannel resonators (SMRs). The SNR consists of a cantilever that is 50 μm long, 10 μm wide, and 1.3 μm thick, with an embedded nanochannel that is 2 μm wide and 700 nm tall. The SNR has a resonance frequency near 640 kHz and exhibits the maximum quality factor of approximately 16,000 when dry and when filled with water. Using the SNRs, we demonstrated mass measurements of various nanoparticles down to 20 nm in diameter and viruses in solution with a resolution of 27 ag in a 1 kHz bandwidth, which represents a 100-fold improvement over existing SMRs and, to our knowledge, is the most precise mass measurement in liquid today.

Keywords

biosensors; cantilevers; mass measurement; micromechanical resonators; microorganisms; nanobiotechnology; nanofluidics; nanoparticles; nanosensors; cantilever; mass measurements; mass resolution; maximum quality factor; resonance frequency; suspended microchannel resonators; suspended nanochannel resonators; viruses; weighing nanoparticles; Atmospheric measurements; Nanoparticles; Optical resonators; Particle measurements; Q factor; Resonant frequency; Signal to noise ratio;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2011 IEEE 24th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Cancun

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9632-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2011.5734594

Filename

5734594