A Hand-Held MEMS Sensor for Characterizing the RCRA Metals in Water

This SBIR project will test the feasibility of developing a hand-held microcantilever array sensor to detect and quantify the presence of hazardous Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals in water. The sensor would consist of an array of specially prepared microcantilevers integrated onto a microcircuit. Binding and mass adsorption generate measurable defection and resonance frequency changes in the microcantilevers for superior sensitivity and selectivity. The objective of the Phase I work is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a microcantilever-based array to identify and quantify mercury compounds (Hg) under solution with superior time response, limit of detection, and cost relative to currently available compatible sensors. This objective is to be achieved by constructing a working bench top detection system consisting of an array of specially prepared microcantilevers.