Support compliance: A non-ignorable factor for cantilever sensors for MEMS application

Support compliance at the fixed end of cantilever beams has significant effects on the measured modulus of elasticity in bending (E_b) and accurate deflection response. Additional deflection caused by support compliance is an easily neglected but an inevitable factor, which results in the large errors of the measured E_b. An effective strategy to design cantilever sensors was proposed by enhancing the loading distance, which not only improve the sensitivity, but also weaken the support compliance effect. In a nutshell, the support compliance effect must be taken into accounted by engineers carefully to improve the accuracy of the measured E_b and deflection response for cantilever sensors which used in MEMS.