Piezoelectric biosensors for medical applications

The property of piezoelectric crystals of vibrating under the influence of an electric field, and the relationship between the resonant frequency changes and the mass of molecules adsorbed or desorbed from the surface of the crystal are the basis of the transduction mechanism in piezoelectric biosensors. This chapter proposes an overview of literature in the last three years on this subject, with focus on medical applications classifying the different piezoelectric biosensors depending on the biomolecule coupled to the piezoelectric sensor (antibodies, nucleic acids and bio-mimetic receptor, mainly aptamers). © 2012 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.