Cantilever Sensors for Industrial Applications

Dear colleagues,

Cantilevers, as the most basic micromechanical spring–mass system, have recently shown increasing potential for commercial application beyond atomic force microscopy (AFM). Cantilevers of various designs and dimensions can complete sensing and monitoring tasks in many application fields, e.g., surface and coating technology, mechanical wear and damage, form and roughness, tissue and lubricant engineering, and aerosol characterization. For such purposes, they are operated either in quasi-static or dynamic conditions (e.g., for highly sensitive detection and probing of particulates, cells, proteins, or DNA). According to their design, self-sensing cantilevers are suitable for tactile probing of micron-sized surfaces (e.g., in scanning probe microscopes) or with large-scale workpieces in production environments. They can measure the material surfaces and coatings, including properties inside hard-to-access high-aspect-ratio structures, such as microholes and other irregular vertical objects. Further, cantilever force sensors are usable in grippers of next-generation robotic systems and biomedical instrumentations or as precisely calibrated transferable reference standards to be disseminated by national metrology institutes. Cantilever arrays (2D and 3D architectures) can enable the parallelized operation of tactile and force sensors.

The aim of this Special Issue is to gather original contributions or review papers from researchers that are actively engaged in developing new ideas in any of the innumerable sectors of development of cantilever sensors for various applications in industry. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Self-reading AFM;
• High-speed AFM imaging and force spectroscopy;
• Nanomechanical mapping of soft materials with AFM;
• Conductive AFM;
• Piezoresponse force microscopy;
• Micro/nano-probing-tip characterization;
• Micro- and nanofabrication of specialized cantilevers, e.g., using FIB;
• Standards for micro/nanoforce and stiffness calibration;
• High-speed roughness measurement;
• Hand-held miniature roughness testers;
• Roughness metrology with, e.g., polished gears, ground paper rolls;
• Measurement of scratch damage in ceramics.

Prof. Dr. Erwin Peiner
Dr. Uwe Brand
Guest Editors

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