SGER: DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH FREQUENCY SILICON CAPACITIVE RESONATORS FOR HIGH-Q OPERATION IN LIQUID MEDIA

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DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH FREQUENCY SILICON CAPACITIVERESONATORS FOR HIGH-Q OPERATION IN LIQUID MEDIAABSTRACT1. ObjectivesThis proposal is aimed at the design, fabrication, and characterization of bulk-mode capacitivesilicon resonators capable of high-Q operation in liquid for high-resolution label-free biochemicaldetection and analysis. The goal is to demonstrate quality factors as high as 1000 in DI water forresonators in the 10-200MHz frequency range.2. Intellectual Merit:Despite recent developments in the silicon resonator technologies and speculations on thesuitability of such devices as high-precision mass sensors, no viable design or architecture forpractical sensory applications has been demonstrated for such devices. In particular, operation ofcapacitive micro-resonators in liquid with an acceptably high quality factor remains an openproblem. This effort will develop and demonstrate new design concepts and fabricationapproaches for minimization of viscous damping caused by the surrounding liquid. The proposedpartially encapsulated resonators will be designed, fabricated and characterized in aqueous liquidmedia.3. Broader ImpactSuccessful development of the proposed resonators will pave the way towards implementation ofhighly sensitive label-free biochemical sensor arrays with numerous applications in biology,medicine and health sciences.The expected outcomes of the proposed activities will fuel the PI?s ongoing lecture and lab coursedevelopment activities under the NSF NUE grant. The PI will have research assistantshipopenings for undergraduate students under this project. The financial support for theundergraduate students will be provided by the University of Denver through the Partners inScholarship (PINS) program. In selection of the undergraduate research assistants priority will begiven to students from the minority and under-represented groups