Potential of epitaxial silicon carbide microbeam resonators for chemical sensing

Epitaxial silicon carbide is promising for chemical resonant sensing applications due to its excellent mechanical, thermal, and biochemical properties. This paper reviews six important aspects of (i) silicon carbide heteroepitaxial growth and residual stress; (ii) silicon carbide beam resonators, resonator types, and fabrication processes; (iii) sensing principles, dynamic sensing mechanical performance, and transduction techniques; (iv) damping parameters; (v) mean stress influence on mass sensitivity of SiC flexural microbridge resonators; and (vi) gradient stress impact on SiC cantilever static behavior. The primary goal is to suggest the means to improve the mass sensitivity parameter and application range of epitaxial silicon carbide microbeam resonators and benchmark it with other relevant materials. (C) 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim