Understanding Fundamental Tradeoffs in Nanomechanical Resonant Sensors

Abstract

Nanomechanical resonators are used as high performance detectors in a variety of applications such as mass spectrometry and atomic force microscopy. Initial emphasis in nanomechanical resonant sensor research was on increasing the sensitivity to the level of a single molecule, atom and beyond. On the other hand, there are applications where the speed of detection is crucial, prompting recent works that emphasize sensing schemes with improved time resolution. We first develop a general modeling framework encompassing all resonator tracking schemes currently in use, by extending recent previous work. We then explore the fundamental trade-offs between accuracy and speed in three resonant sensor architectures, namely the feedback-free open-loop approach, positive-feedback based self-sustaining oscillator, and negative-feedback based frequency-locked loop scheme. We comparatively analyze them in a unified manner, clarify some misconceptions that seem to exist in the literature, and unravel their speed versus accuracy characteristics.

arXiv comment14 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (10)

• A Mechanical Mass Sensor with Yoctogram Resolution
• Ultimate limits to inertial mass sensing based upon nanoelectromechanical systems
• Frequency fluctuations in silicon nanoresonators
• Surpassing fundamental limits of oscillators using nonlinear resonators
• A general procedure for thermomechanical calibration of nano/micro-mechanical resonators
• Stabilization of a linear nanomechanical oscillator to its ultimate thermodynamic limit
• Optimal operating points of oscillators using nonlinear resonators
• Frequency fluctuations in nanomechanical silicon nitride string resonators
• Phase-Locked Loop based Resonant Sensors: A Rigorous Theory and General Analysis Framework for Deciphering Fundamental Sensitivity Limitations due to Noise
• Phase noise of oscillators with unsaturated amplifiers

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Mesoscopic physics of nanomechanical systems
• Demonstration of Frequency Stability limited by Thermal Fluctuation Noise in Silicon Nitride Nanomechanical Resonators
• Uncooled Thermal Infrared Detection Near the Fundamental Limit Using a Nanomechanical Resonator with a Broadband Absorber
• Adaptive Time-Resolved Mass Spectrometry with Nanomechanical Resonant Sensors
• Machine Learning and Kalman Filtering for Nanomechanical Mass Spectrometry
• Control of quality factor of atomic force microscopy cantilever by cavity optomechanical effect
• High Stability Mechanical Frequency Sensing beyond the Linear Regime
• High Resolution Measurement of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer enabled by Nanomechanical Resonators