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Nanomechanical Sensors
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Nanomechanical Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 12483

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mourad N. El-Gamal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: micro and nanoscale electro-mechanical systems; sensors; actuators; integrated electronics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mohannad Y. Elsayed

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
MEMS-Vision International Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: MEMS/NEMS devices; micro and nanofabrication; sensors; actuators; integrated electronics; CMOS-MEMS integration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanomechanical devices have attracted a significant amount of interest in the research community. Scaling mechanical components down to the nanoscale has several advantages—for example, low mass, high resonance frequency, superior sensitivity, and low power consumption, which opens the doors for several applications, such as chemical, biological, gas sensing, high frequency resonators, and nanomachines.

The aim of this Special Issue is to cover state-of-the-art progress in all aspects of nanomechanical devices. Research articles, short letters, and review papers will be considered. Contributions from both academia and industry are encouraged. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

  • Nanomaterials, e.g., graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanocomposites;
  • Modeling and simulation of nanoscale phenomena;
  • Nanomechanical sensors and actuators;
  • NEMS-based resonators and timing solutions;
  • Nanofabrication methods;
  • Nanorobots;
  • Nanophotonics.

Prof. Dr. Mourad N. El-Gamal
Dr. Mohannad Y. Elsayed
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS) 
  • Nanoscale robotics 
  • Nanomaterials
  • Graphene 
  • Carbon nanotubes 
  • Nanocomposites 
  • Micromachined resonators
  • M/NEMS based timing 
  • Molecular sensors and actuators 
  • Micro/nanofabrication methods 
  • Nano robots 
  • Nanophotonics
  • Nanofluidics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 7147 KiB  
Article
Comparison between Linear and Branched Polyethylenimine and Reduced Graphene Oxide Coatings as a Capture Layer for Micro Resonant CO2 Gas Concentration Sensors
by Alberto Prud’homme and Frederic Nabki
Sensors 2020, 20(7), 1824; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20071824 - 25 Mar 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4362
Abstract
The comparison between potential coatings for the measurement of CO2 concentration through the frequency shift in micro-resonators is presented. The polymers evaluated are linear polyethylenimine, branched polyethylenimine and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by microwave reduction with polyethylenimine. The characterization of the coatings [...] Read more.
The comparison between potential coatings for the measurement of CO2 concentration through the frequency shift in micro-resonators is presented. The polymers evaluated are linear polyethylenimine, branched polyethylenimine and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by microwave reduction with polyethylenimine. The characterization of the coatings was made by using 6 MHz gold-plated quartz crystals, and a proof-of-concept sensor is shown with a diaphragm electrostatic microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonator. The methods of producing the solutions of the polymers deposited onto the quartz crystals are presented. A CO2 concentration range from 0.05% to 1% was dissolved in air and humidity level were controlled and evaluated. Linear polyethylenimine showed superior performance with a reaction time obtained for stabilization after the concentration increase of 345 s, while the time for recovery was of 126 s, with a maximum frequency deviation of 33.6 Hz for an in-air CO2 concentration of 0.1%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomechanical Sensors)
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10 pages, 6584 KiB  
Article
Ionization Gas Sensor Using Suspended Carbon Nanotube Beams
by Shivaram Arunachalam, Ricardo Izquierdo and Frederic Nabki
Sensors 2020, 20(6), 1660; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20061660 - 17 Mar 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2730
Abstract
An ionization sensor based on suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was presented. A suspended CNT beam was fabricated by a low-temperature surface micromachining process using SU8 photoresist as the sacrificial layer. Application of a bias to the CNT beam generated very high non-linear electric [...] Read more.
An ionization sensor based on suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was presented. A suspended CNT beam was fabricated by a low-temperature surface micromachining process using SU8 photoresist as the sacrificial layer. Application of a bias to the CNT beam generated very high non-linear electric fields near the tips of individual CNTs sufficient to ionize target gas molecules and initiate a breakdown current. The sensing mechanism of the CNT ionization sensor was discussed. The sensor response was tested in air, nitrogen, argon, and helium ambients. Each gas demonstrated a unique breakdown signature. Further, the sensor was tested with gaseous mixtures. The sensor exhibited good long-term stability and had comparable performance to other reported CNT-based ionization sensors in literature, which use high-temperature vapor deposition methods to grow CNTs. The sensor notably allowed for lower ionization voltages due to its reduced ionization gap size. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomechanical Sensors)
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15 pages, 5941 KiB  
Article
Dual-Level Capacitive Micromachined Uncooled Thermal Detector
by Hani H. Tawfik, Karim Allidina, Frederic Nabki and Mourad N. El-Gamal
Sensors 2019, 19(24), 5434; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19245434 - 10 Dec 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2547
Abstract
This paper presents a novel dual-level capacitive microcantilever-based thermal detector that is implemented in the commercial surface micromachined PolyMUMPs technology. The proposed design is implemented side-by-side with four different single-level designs to enable a design-to-design performance comparison. The dual-level design exhibits a rate [...] Read more.
This paper presents a novel dual-level capacitive microcantilever-based thermal detector that is implemented in the commercial surface micromachined PolyMUMPs technology. The proposed design is implemented side-by-side with four different single-level designs to enable a design-to-design performance comparison. The dual-level design exhibits a rate of capacitance change per degree Celsius that is over three times higher than that of the single-level designs and has a base capacitance that is more than twice as large. These improvements are achieved because the dual-level architecture allows a 100% electrode-to-detector area, while single-level designs are shown to suffer from an inherent trade-off between sensitivity and base capacitance. In single-level designs, either the number of the bimorph beams or the capacitance electrode can be increased for a given sensor area. The former is needed for a longer effective length of the bimorph for higher thermomechanical sensitivity (i.e., larger tilting angels per degree Celsius), while the latter is desired to relax the read-out integrated-circuits requirements. This thermomechanical response-to-initial capacitance trade-off is mitigated by the dual-level design, which dedicates one structural layer to serve as the upper electrode of the detector, while the other layer contains as many bimorph beams as desired, independently of the former’s area. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomechanical Sensors)
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7 pages, 1677 KiB  
Article
Improved Optical Waveguide Microcantilever for Integrated Nanomechanical Sensor
by Yachao Jing, Guofang Fan, Rongwei Wang, Zeping Zhang, Xiaoyu Cai, Jiasi Wei, Xin Chen, Hongyu Li and Yuan Li
Sensors 2019, 19(19), 4346; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19194346 - 8 Oct 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2452
Abstract
This paper reports on an improved optical waveguide microcantilever sensor with high sensitivity. To improve the sensitivity, a buffer was introduced into the connection of the input waveguide and optical waveguide cantilever by extending the input waveguide to reduce the coupling loss of [...] Read more.
This paper reports on an improved optical waveguide microcantilever sensor with high sensitivity. To improve the sensitivity, a buffer was introduced into the connection of the input waveguide and optical waveguide cantilever by extending the input waveguide to reduce the coupling loss of the junction. The buffer-associated optical losses were examined for different cantilever thicknesses. The optimum length of the buffer was found to be 0.97 μm for a cantilever thickness of 300 nm. With this configuration, the optical loss was reduced to about 40%, and the maximum sensitivity was more than twice that of the conventional structure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomechanical Sensors)
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