Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems for [bio]molecular analysis

[Bio]chemical sensors, defined as devices which convert a chemical state into an electrical signal [1], have been the subject of a strong development during the past few decades. A sensor has essentially two parts (Fig. 1): a detecting element, in which the presence of an external stimulus produces a change of some property (optical, mechanical, electrical ...), and a transducing element, which transforms this change into an electrical output signal. The sensor figures of merit, such as sensitivity, selectivity, linearity and drift, result from the combined performances of both the detecting and the transducing element. For chemical and biological sensors, a high selectivity of the detecting element to targeted analytes can be obtained using molecular or biomolecular recognition. Typically, chemical sensors have operated based on electrochemical or optical properties [2]. However, during the last few years there has been a strong increase in the use of mechanical transducers in chemical and biochemical senResum