MEMS based Sensors for Chemical & Biochemical Sensing Applications

Since the late 1980s there have been spectacular developments in microelectro-mechanical (MEMS) systems, which have enabled the exploration of transduction modes that involve mechanical energy; and are based primarily on mechanical phenomena. As a result an innovative family of chemical and biological sensors has emerged. In this talk, we discuss sensors in the form of microcantilevers & microheaters. 
While MEMS represents a diverse family of designs; devices with simple cantilever configurations & microheater configurations are especially attractive as transducers for chemical and biological sensors. The review deals with several important aspects of these transducers, namely: (i) operation principles; (ii) fabrication; and (iii) applications. 
In the second part of the talk we discuss about our work in healthcare applications to make a MEMS based instrument that can help physicians in diagnosing a heart attack event. We will also present our work to develop a MEMS based explosives detector. Finally, we discuss about the instruments (Omnicant & Sensimer) that we have developed, to help researchers to experiment with microcantilevers & microheaters.

About Dr. Nitin S. Kale: 

Nitin S. Kale obtained his M. Tech from VNIT Nagpur in 1999, and his Ph. D. from the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Bombay in 2007. During 2007 – 2008, he worked as a Principal Engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, on the 32-nm High-K Metal Gate project. In 2009 he joined the IIT Bombay Nanomanufacturing Facility as its Manager. In this role he was responsible for the day to day operations and management of the Rs 200 Crore IIT Bombay Nanofabrication Facility. 

Since June 2011, he is working with NanoSniff Technologies, which is a technology start-up company incubated at IIT Bombay. He is responsible for the R&D in the area of fabricating microcantilever sensors, microheaters; and developing instruments for detecting explosives, proteins and antibodies, using microcantilever based measurements. 

He has developed instruments such as Omnicant & Sensimer; has developed, fabricated, characterized NEMS devices such as Piezoresistive microcantilevers and Microheaters; and has also developed a 3- reactor Hotwire CVD Cluster tool for deposition of thin films.

His research interests include the design, simulation, fabrication and characterization of MEMS structures; vacuum system design; and thin films and their characterization from the MEMS perspective. He has published over 16 papers in peer reviewed journals and conferences; he holds a patent; and has published a book-chapter.