Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have tremendous applications in the field of biomedical and chemical sensors. There are different readout techniques like piezo-resistive and piezo-electric which are used to measure the stimuli absorbed by the cantilever into electrical signals. In this paper, we used the open-source Ptolemy software to model MOEMS sensor with novel optical read out. To enhance the deflection and sensitivity, four micro-mass optical MEMS sensor models were developed using four different shapes of the cantilever. The detectable mass range measured by the triangular cantilever using parylene as material is 50.97 μg–23.996 mg. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019.