Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Piezoresistors are commonly used in microsystems for transducing force, displacement, pressure and acceleration. Silicon piezoresistors can be fabricated using ion implantation, diffusion or epitaxy and are widely used for their low cost and electronic readout. However, the design of piezoresistive cantilevers is complicated by coupling between design parameters as well as fabrication and application constraints. Here we discuss analytical models and design optimization for piezoresistive cantilevers, and describe several applications ranging from studying electron movement using scanning gate microscopy to measuring the biomechanics of whole organisms.