Exploring all-electrical soft-tissue stiffness measurement using piezoelectric unimorph cantilevers

Piezoelectric cantilevers will be used to investigate the force-deformation response of soft tissues. Potential clinical applications for such a method will be studied, mainly, the possibility of a stand-alone instrument for in vivo detection or diagnosis of diseased tissue. Preliminary testing of a fabricated cantilever indicates proper function, and continuing work will focus on identifying parameters sufficient to characterize the mechanical behavior of biological tissues.