Resonant Microcantilever Based Micro Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer (μ-TGA)

For the first time, a new type of resonant microcantilever integrated with a specially designed micro-heater at its free-end is employed to develop the next-generation micro thermal-gravimetric analyzer (named μ-TGA). Our integrated resonant microcantilever combines multi-functions in one chip including mass-weighing, heating and temperature measuring and therefore, shows significant advantages for high-performance TGA instrument fabrication. Compared with commercial-available TGA instruments, our μ-TGA exhibits remarkable merits in sample amount (ng-level), sensitivity (Hz/pg), mass resolution (pg-level), and power consumption (mW@950°C). Worth noting that it takes ultra-high risk for using the conventional TGA instrument to analysis the energetic substances such as explosives. Fortunately, the single-used μ-TGA chip only needs trace amount sample for analysis and thus, is safely used for TNT explosive analysis.