Fig. 4

Mechanical force distribution as measured by mechanical sensors. a Capture molecules (perpendicular sticks) arranged continuously from the hinge region and terminating at varying distances from the free-end of a cantilever sensor. b The corresponding mechanical force obtained plotted as a function of the geometrical length of regions covered by the capture molecules shown by solid diamond symbols in red. c Capture molecules (perpendicular sticks) arranged continuously from the free-end of a cantilever sensor and terminating at varying distances from the hinge region. d The corresponding mechanical force obtained plotted as a function of the geometrical length of the capture molecules shown by solid diamond symbols in gray. In a and c, the plain areas (yellow orange) were passivated to block nonspecific interactions. In b and d, the solid lines connecting the diamond symbol data points were fitted to Eq. (2) to calculate the critical fraction of the region covered by capture molecules at which a signal is generated. The error bars shown represent the standard deviation obtained from four separate cantilever chips. The results demonstrate the impact of continuous connectivity network within capture molecules and with the hinge on the signal sensitivity and reproducibility