Optical fibre cantilever sensor for biological application

Micro-cantilever sensors have shown great promise in a wide range of application are as including chemical and biological sensing. However, many of these devices are based upon a sensor 'chip' that requires careful alignment between the cantilever and the read-out system, which can be challenging. Furthermore, optical interrogation typically involves a bulky free-space system. Optical fibre addressed cantilevers have been reported previously in the literature and in this paper we propose techniques to design and fabricate polymer micro-cantilevers for attachment onto the end of standard single mode fibres using laser machining. Low-cost optical sources and a fibre coupled spectrometer are employed to monitor the cantilever deflection and therefore observe biological binding between a species of interest and an activated cantilever. Proof-of-concept experiments show that the sensor is capable of detecting pathogen concentration with down to a level of 105cfu/ml.