Nanomechanical actuation of a silicon cantilever using an azo dye, self-assembled monolayer.

The emerging fields of nanomotors and optomechanics are based on the harnessing of light to generate force. However, our ability to detect small surface stresses is limited by temperature drift, environmental noise, and low-frequency flicker electronic noise. To address these limitations, we functionalized microfabricated silicon cantilevers with an azo dye, silane-based self-assembled monolayer and modulated the surface stress by exciting the optical switch with a 405-nm laser.

Review: Semiconductor Piezoresistance for Microsystems.

Piezoresistive sensors are among the earliest micromachined silicon devices. The need for smaller, less expensive, higher performance sensors helped drive early micromachining technology, a precursor to microsystems or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The effect of stress on doped silicon and germanium has been known since the work of Smith at Bell Laboratories in 1954.

Ultraminiature encapsulated accelerometers as a fully implantable sensor for implantable hearing aids.

Experiments were conducted to evaluate a silicon accelerometer as an implantable sound sensor for implantable hearing aids. The main motivation of this study is to find an alternative sound sensor that is implantable inside the body, yet does not suffer from the signal attenuation from the body. The merit of the accelerometer sensor as a sound sensor will be that it will utilize the natural mechanical conduction in the middle ear as a source of the vibration.