A Glass Cantilever Beam Sensor Combined with a Spherical Reflecting Mirror for Sensitivity Enhancement

The incorporation of a micro spherical reflecting mirror (MSRM) onto a cantilever beam sensor magnifies the optical deflection angle and therefore enhances the sensitivity of an optical sensing system. The curvature of the spherical reflecting mirror determines the angle magnification. Given a certain bending amount and a fixed distance between the cantilever and position sensing detector, the cantilever integrated with a micro spherical mirror with a smaller radius of curvature produces a larger optical deflection. Currently at an intermediate stage, our optical sensing system includes a traditional cantilever and a separate spherical mirror with a radius of curvature of 10 cm, which experimentally simulates a system with a MSRM-integrated cantilever beam. The experimental results show that the sensitivity is enhanced by 70%.