1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to on-chip coils for magnetic actuation of nanoelectromechanical devices, and in particular to piezoresistive microcantilevers as part of actuators with biofunctionized cantilever arrays in hybrid semiconductor-microfluidics devices for the analysis and detection of biological entities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Micro- or nanomachined cantilevered beams which have been biofunctionalized are well known as is their proposed use to detect the presence of bioanalytes by means of changes in the mass of the cantilever and hence its resonant frequency or dynamic performance. However, such bioanalytes are typically carried in a solution which serves to dampen the motion of the cantilever. Thus, one of the challenges has been to obtain a high enough signal from the thermal oscillations of the cantilever or to otherwise effectively drive the cantilever so that its dynamic performance could be usefully utilized to generate an output signal with an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio.