Dual-gate polysilicon nanoribbon biosensors enable high sensitivity detection of proteins

I. Zeimpekis, K. Sun, C. Hu, N. M.J. Ditshego, O. Thomas, M. R.R. De Planque, H. M.H. Chong, H. Morgan, P. Ashburn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We demonstrate the advantages of dual-gate polysilicon nanoribbon biosensors with a comprehensive evaluation of different measurement schemes for pH and protein sensing. In particular, we compare the detection of voltage and current changes when top- and bottom-gate bias is applied. Measurements of pH show that a large voltage shift of 491 mV pH-1 is obtained in the subthreshold region when the top-gate is kept at a fixed potential and the bottom-gate is varied (voltage sweep). This is an improvement of 16 times over the 30 mV pH-1 measured using a top-gate sweep with the bottom-gate at a fixed potential. A similar large voltage shift of 175 mV is obtained when the protein avidin is sensed using a bottom-gate sweep. This is an improvement of 20 times compared with the 8.8 mV achieved from a top-gate sweep. Current measurements using bottom-gate sweeps do not deliver the same signal amplification as when using bottom-gate sweeps to measure voltage shifts. Thus, for detecting a small signal change on protein binding, it is advantageous to employ a double-gate transistor and to measure a voltage shift using a bottom-gate sweep. For top-gate sweeps, the use of a dual-gate transistor enables the current sensitivity to be enhanced by applying a negative bias to the bottom-gate to reduce the carrier concentration in the nanoribbon. For pH measurements, the current sensitivity increases from 65% to 149% and for avidin sensing it increases from 1.4% to 2.5%.

Original languageEnglish
Article number165502
JournalNanotechnology
Volume27
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 8 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Bioengineering
  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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