Cantilever resonators immersed in liquids experience significant viscous damping, which degrades the resonator’s quality factor (Q-factor) and lowers the signal-to-noise ratio. To address this challenge, a strategic perforation approach is proposed to enhance the Q-factor of cantilever resonators in viscous liquids. A distributed-parameter model based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method is developed to quantify the spatial distribution of structural stiffness and viscous damping. The analysis shows that material removal at the free end effectively reduces squeeze-film damping while maintaining stiffness. Resonator prototypes with different perforation designs are fabricated and tested in various viscous liquids. The results show that the free-end perforated cantilever (FPC) achieves a higher Q-factor compared to the conventional non-perforated cantilever (NPC). In an 18.5 mPa·s liquid, the FPC demonstrates a 346.2 % Q-factor enhancement and a 4.78 % frequency increase. These results provide a design guideline for high-performance cantilever resonators in liquid-phase sensing applications.
Qu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.