Patent ID: 7871569

Claim:
A system comprising: (a) a film bulk acoustic piezoelectric resonator (FBAR) comprising a layer of piezoelectric material and a pair of electrodes coupled to the layer of piezoelectric material, said FBAR being mounted on an insulator comprising a semiconductive layer and first and second, spaced apart insulating layers, said FBAR having a first edge contacting said first insulating layer and a second edge contacting said second insulating layer, wherein said semiconductive layer, said spaced apart insulating layers, and said FBAR define a void region therebetween, wherein at least one surface of one of the electrodes or of the piezoelectric material is functionalized to bind with target molecules in a liquid sample; and (b) a control circuit comprising a signal generating circuit to apply an excitation signal that includes a plurality of frequencies to the pair of electrodes and a processing circuit to measure the impedance of the resonator FBAR to the frequencies of the excitation signal, whereby the presence of the binding of the target molecule can be detected by observing an alteration in the frequency response of the resonator FBAR; (c) a memory coupled to the processing circuit, the memory having a baseline response stored therein, wherein the system is configured to detect the target molecule comprising a biological molecule.