“Organic CantiFET”: A Nanomechanical Polymer Cantilever Sensor With Integrated OFET

Abstract

Nanomechanical cantilever based biochemical sensors translate molecular interactions into nanomechanical motions that can be measured by different transduction techniques. Improved sensitivity, reliability, and also cost effectiveness of such sensor platforms have been achieved by the use of polymer materials, along with the employment of smart and compatible transduction techniques. This paper explores an ultrasensitive nanomechanical cantilever sensor platform with a novel transduction technique by integrating a strain-sensitive organic field-effect transistor within a polymer nanomechanical cantilever. This sensor, named as “organic CantiFET,” has a surface stress sensitivity of 401 with a low-noise floor. This categorizes the organic CantiFET as an efficient biochemical sensor having a minimum detectable surface stress in the range of 0.18 mN/m