CSE Seminar

SPEAKER: Jane Valentine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

TITLE: Optimization of Biochemical Sensors and Sensor Arrays

DATE: Monday, April 28, 2008
TIME: 12:00 Noon
PLACE: 2240 DCL
1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL

ABSTRACT

Acoustic wave biochemical sensors work by detecting the frequency shifts resulting from the binding of target molecules to a functionalized resonator. We describe our work on a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based acoustic wave biochemical sensor using a membrane resonator. Due to a high surface area to mass ratio, we believe a membrane resonator may allow for increased sensitivity relative to other resonator structures. We demonstrate the effects of spatial distributions of mass on the membrane on sensitivity and show how to use this spatial sensitivity to detect multiple targets simultaneously. To do so we simulate the membrane response to spatially uneven mass loadings using a finite element package, and independently derive a function approximating the membrane response surface to spatial mass loadings under the applicable range of conditions. We verify the agreement between our simulation and model, and present sensitivity calculations demonstrating the advantages of variable mass loadings. We then use our reduced-order model of the membrane response surface as a basis for optimization of multi-target detection systems using only a single membrane, optimizing for multiple objective functions, including discrimination and sensitivity.