Characterization of vaccinia virus particles using microscale silicon cantilever resonators and atomic force microscopy
Date of this VersionOctober 2005
Sensors and Actuators B 115 (2006) 189-197
This document has been peer-reviewed.
Rapid means of characterizing and detecting virus particles are very important for a wide variety of applications. We have used vaccinia virus, a member of the Poxviridae virus family and the basis of the smallpox vaccine, as the test case and characterized these particles using atomic force microscopy and micron-scale cantilever beams, with the long-term goal of developing devices for the direct rapid detection of air-borne virus particles. The cantilever beams, driven by thermal noise and a PZT piezoelectric ceramic, served as resonating sensors to measure the mass of these virus particles. Two different size cantilevers were used, with dimensions of 21