Surface integrated membrane nanomechanical and microwave coplanar waveguide based biosensors

Abstract

Nanoelectromechanical Systems, or NEMS, is the further miniaturized extension of novel devices of 40 years ago, Microelectromechanical Systems or MEMS in short. Nano scale devices first appeared at the dawn of 21st century and they are well established and elaborated by this time to a point which it shapes the technological paradigm of the current decade with various applications such as gene sequencing, improved computers and single molecule detection. The rapid improvement of miniaturization tecniques owes a great deal to the hard work of scientists and engineers of previous generation. Fabrication methods which were limited to a small number which disallowed sub-micron features are improved and new methods have been discovered within the previous decades. This has paved the way for creation of very sensitive sensors in NEMS domain. In this study, a novel biosensor is designed and attempted to be created out of coplanar waveguide resonators which is constructed on top of a nanometers thick membrane and at the sensory region of the resonator a nanopore is proposed to be created. The nanopore is suggested in order to allow nano-particle carrier fluids to pass through the most sensitive region of the resonator, causing a change in its resonant frequency due to electrical property of the nano-particle. The frequency shift caused by particles is suggested to be used to detect and characterize the particles. The particles in this case are planned to be exosomes which are sub-micron packages with cytoplasmic content, naturally secreted by cells for various reasons. Contents of the exosomes may carry diagnostic information about the cell. Exosomes themselves are still being investigated for their uses and benefits within the context of microbiology which makes the proposed device very crucial for ongoing exosome research effort which is still on the rise.