A novel inductive technique for microcantilever displacement detection

A novel inductive technique for the detection of microcantilever displacement for sensing applications was presented. We highlight the basic structure and evaluate its characteristics with the aid of modeling and simulation. Results generated by numerical simulations using ANSOFT are compared with those obtained from an equivalent circuit model using PSPICE. There are indications that the sensitivity of the inductive cantilever is about one order of magnitude higher as compared to piezoresistive silicon cantilevers of the same dimension under the same cantilever bending.