• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1997-2003
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• 2004

This paper presents a new method and an associated device, capable of detecting protein presence and size from the shift of the mechanical stiffness changing points due to the presence and size of proteins in a nano-gap actuator. Compared to the conventional resonant detection method, the present nanomechanical stiffness detection method shows higher precision for protein detection. The present method also offers simple and inexpensive protein detection devices by removing labeling process and optical components. We design and fabricate the nanomechanical protein detector using an electrothermal actuator with a nano-gap. In the experimental study, we measure the stiffness changing points and their coordinate shift from the devices with and without target proteins. The fabricated device detects the protein presence and the protein size of 14.0$\pm$7.4nm based on the coordinate shift of stiffness changing points. We experimentally verify the protein presence and size detection capability of the nanomechanical protein detector for applications to high-precision biomolecule detection.