An optical waveguide microcantilever sensor with a dual-output waveguide readout is developed to obtain a linear response for the deflection of cantilever. A finite element method is employed to characterize the optical waveguide microcantilever sensor. A systematic and detailed discussion has been presented to describe an optical waveguide cantilever sensor with a dual-output waveguide. One can see that most of the results are interesting, even very different from general opinions. The design is a tradeoff of the sensitivity, linearity and operation range. These will be helpful for an optimized design of the microcantilever sensor.