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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 January 2011
A key issue in using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based micropillars ascellular force transducers is obtaining an accurate characterization ofmechanical properties. The Young’s modulus of PDMS has been extended from aconstant in the ideal elastic case to a time-dependent function in theviscoelastic case. However, the frequency domain information is of morepractical interest in interpreting the complex cell contraction behavior. Inthis paper, we reevaluated the Young’s relaxation modulus in the time domainby using more robust fitting algorithms than previous reports, andinvestigated the storage and loss moduli in the frequency domain using theFourier transform technique. With the use of the frequency domain modulusand the deflection of micropillars in the Fourier series, the forcecalculation can be much simplified by converting a convolution in the timedomain to a multiplication in the frequency domain.