This proposal is aimed at the design, fabrication, and characterization of bulk-mode capacitive silicon resonators capable of high-Q operation in liquid for high-resolution label-free biochemical detection and analysis. The goal is to demonstrate quality factors as high as 1000 in DI water for resonators in the 10-200MHz frequency range. 2. Intellectual Merit: Despite recent developments in the silicon resonator technologies and speculations on the suitability of such devices as high-precision mass sensors, no viable design or architecture for practical sensory applications has been demonstrated for such devices. In particular, operation of capacitive micro-resonators in liquid with an acceptably high quality factor remains an open problem. This effort will develop and demonstrate new design concepts and fabrication approaches for minimization of viscous damping caused by the surrounding liquid. The proposed partially encapsulated resonators will be designed, fabricated and characterized in aqueous liquid media. 3. Broader Impact Successful development of the proposed resonators will pave the way towards implementation of highly sensitive label-free biochemical sensor arrays with numerous applications in biology, medicine and health sciences. The expected outcomes of the proposed activities will fuel the PI?s ongoing lecture and lab course development activities under the NSF NUE grant. The PI will have research assistantship openings for undergraduate students under this project. The financial support for the undergraduate students will be provided by the University of Denver through the Partners in Scholarship (PINS) program. In selection of the undergraduate research assistants priority will be given to students from the minority and under-represented groups
