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A dielectric-modulated field-effect transistor for biosensing

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 430–434 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Interest in biosensors based on field-effect transistors (FETs), where an electrically operated gate controls the flow of charge through a semiconducting channel, is driven by the prospect of integrating biodetection capabilities into existing semiconductor technology1. In a number of proposed FET biosensors, surface interactions with biomolecules in solution affect the operation of the gate or the channel2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19. However, these devices often have limited sensitivity. We show here that a FET biosensor with a vertical gap is sensitive to the specific binding of streptavidin to biotin. The binding of the streptavidin changes the dielectric constant (and capacitance) of the gate, resulting in a large shift in the threshold voltage for operating the FET. The vertical gap is fabricated using simple thin-film deposition and wet-etching techniques. This may be an advantage over planar nanogap FETs, which require lithographic processing20,21,22,23,24. We believe that the dielectric-modulated FET (DMFET) provides a useful approach towards biomolecular detection that could be extended to a number of other systems.

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Figure 1: A DMFET.
Figure 2: IDS–VGS characteristics of the DMFET nanogap device.
Figure 3: Electrical characteristics of the DMFET nanogap device before and after biomolecules are immobilized in the nanogap.
Figure 4: Comparison of the electrical characteristics of the DMFET nanogap device (gap size, 15 nm; length, 200 nm) in five controlled experiments.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research and Development Program (NRDP, 2005-01274) for biomedical function monitoring biosensor development sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). X.J.H. would like to express appreciation for the financial support of the Brain Korea 21 project, the School of Information Technology, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2007. The work was partially supported by the Center for Ultramicrochemical Process Systems, sponsored by KOSEF and Samsung Electronics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano-Oriented Bio-Electronic Lab, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea

    Hyungsoon Im, Xing-Jiu Huang, Bonsang Gu & Yang-Kyu Choi

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  1. Hyungsoon Im
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  2. Xing-Jiu Huang
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  3. Bonsang Gu
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Contributions

Y.K.C. conceived the biosensor application with a dielectric-modulated field-effect transistor. H.I. and Y.K.C. designed the transistor experiments, and H.I. fabricated the transistors. X.J.H. and H.I. performed bio-related experiments, and B.G. worked on simulation. H.I. and X.J.H. co-wrote the paper. All authors contributed data analysis and interpretation equally.

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Correspondence to Yang-Kyu Choi.

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Im, H., Huang, XJ., Gu, B. et al. A dielectric-modulated field-effect transistor for biosensing. Nature Nanotech 2, 430–434 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.180

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