Standard CMOS Fabrication of a Sensitive Fully Depleted Electrolyte-Insulator-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor for Biosensor Applications (original) (raw)

Recent Advances and Progress in Development of the Field Effect Transistor Biosensor: A Review

Journal of Electronic Materials

The vital utilization of biosensors in different domains has led to the design of much more precise and powerful biosensors, since they have the potential to attain information in a fast and simple manner compared to conventional assays. The present review describes the basic concepts, operation, and construction of biosensors and presented an ideology that choice of categorization, selection of immobilization method and advantages are crucial factors for an efficient and commercial biosensor. Amongst various biosensors, the field effect transistor (FET)-based biosensors have shown much more potential and immense advantages such as high detection ability and sensitivity for both neutral and charged biomolecules and, hence, have been explored comprehensively in the present review. This paper discusses the current challenges in device design by mainly focusing on the quantitative and qualitative performance parameters such as sensing surface properties, signal-to-noise ratio and various other factors, since consideration of these factors will eventually address the crucial concerns related to device design and practical limitations. The critical measures to translate the commercialization of biosensors in the market at a high pace have also been discussed. Hence, the discussion on device challenges illustrates that there is a scope of improvement in the areas such as short-channel effects, specificity and nanocavity filling factor for revolutionary advances in FET-based biosensors. Optimal selection of design rules and biosensing material has the potential to feature the next generation of biosensors. The present paper reports that following integrated multidisciplinary approaches and switching to nanotechnology in designing of FETbased biosensors can offer a lot of improvements in the practical key factors (such as low cost and reliability) and opportunities for the biosensors in the marketplace.

Enhanced biosensing resolution with foundry fabricated individually addressable dual-gated ISFETs

2014

The adaptation of semiconductor technologies for biological applications may lead to a new era of inexpensive, sensitive, and portable diagnostics. At the core of these developing technologies is the ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET), a biochemical to electrical transducer with seamless integration to electronic systems. We present a novel structure for a true dual-gated ISFET that is fabricated with a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). In contrast to conventional SOI ISFETs, each transistor has an individually addressable back-gate and a gate oxide that is directly exposed to the solution. The elimination of the commonly used floating gate architecture reduces the chance of electrostatic discharge and increases the potential achievable transistor density. We show that when operated in a "dualgate" mode, the transistor response can exhibit sensitivities to pH changes beyond the Nernst limit. This enhancement in sensitivity was shown to increase the sensor's signal-to-noise ratio, allowing the device to resolve smaller pH changes. An improved resolution can be used to enhance small signals and increase the sensor accuracy when monitoring small pH dynamics in biological reactions. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that the amplified sensitivity and improved resolution result in a shorter detection time and a larger output signal of a loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification reaction (LAMP) targeting a pathogenic bacteria gene, showing benefits of the new structure for biosensing applications.

Review—Field-Effect Transistor Biosensing: Devices and Clinical Applications

ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, 2018

Biosensor research has been addressed as an interested field recently. Within different kinds of developed biosensing technologies, field-effect transistor (FET) based biosensors stand out due to their attractive features, such as ultra-sensitivity detection, massproduction capability, and low-cost manufacturing. To promote understandings of the FET based biosensing technology, in this review, its sensing mechanism is introduced, as well as major FET-based biosensing devices: ion sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET), silicon nanowire, organic FET, graphene FET, and compound-semiconductor FET. In addition to FET-based biosensing devices, clinical applications, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancers, diabetes, HIV, and DNA sequence, are also reviewed. In the end, several critical challenges of FET-based biosensing technology are discussed to envision next steps in healthcare technologies.

Biosensor integration on Si-based devices: Feasibility studies and examples

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2013

ABSTRACT Feasibility studies and examples of integration of Si-based miniaturized biosensors are discussed. We investigated three main issues: (i) device surface functionalization, (ii) biological molecule functionality after immobilization and (iii) biosensor working principle using electrical transduction mechanism in order to fabricate electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) and, in the near future, ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) biosensors.We compared a well established method for the immobilization of bio-molecules on Si oxide with a new immobilization protocol, both providing a covalent bonding on SiO2 surfaces of proteins (metallothioneines) enzymes (glucose oxidase, horse radish peroxidase), or DNA strands. The process steps were characterized by means of contact angle, XPS and TEM measurements. The compatibility with Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI) technology of the two protocols was also studied. The results strongly encourage to use the new optimized protocol to accomplish both ULSI compatibility and biological molecules correct functionalization. The electrical characterization of MOS-like capacitors with ssDNA anchored on the SiO2 dielectric, allowed us to conclude that the structures tested are sensitive to DNA immobilization and hybridization, as demonstrated by a positive shift in the VFB of +0.47 ± 0.04 V after ssDNA immobilization and by a further +0.07 ± 0.02 V shift when hybridization occurs. Device working principle was proved in this way. However, our results seem to indicate that bare SiO2 surfaces cannot be used as anchoring sites for DNA in transistor applications. In fact, the immersion in solution causes the migration of H+ ions in the oxide and the formation of defects at the SiO2/Si interface.

Experimental Study of the Detection Limit in Dual-Gate Biosensors Using Ultrathin Silicon Transistors

ACS nano, 2017

Dual-gate field-effect biosensors (bioFETs) with asymmetric gate capacitances were shown to surpass the Nernst limit of 59 mV/pH. However, previous studies have conflicting findings on the effect of the capacitive amplification scheme on the sensor detection limit, which is inversely proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Here, we present a systematic experimental investigation of the SNR using ultrathin silicon transistors. Our sensors operate at low voltage and feature asymmetric front and back oxide capacitances with asymmetry factors of 1.4 and 2.3. We demonstrate that in the dual-gate configuration, the response of our bioFETs to the pH change increases proportional to the asymmetry factor and indeed exceeds the Nernst limit. Further, our results reveal that the noise amplitude also increases in proportion to the asymmetry factor. We establish that the commensurate increase of the noise amplitude originates from the intrinsic low-frequency characteristic of the sensor...

Device considerations for development of conductance-based biosensors

Journal of Applied Physics, 2009

Design and fabrication of electronic biosensors based on field-effect-transistor ͑FET͒ devices require understanding of interactions between semiconductor surfaces and organic biomolecules. From this perspective, we review practical considerations for electronic biosensors with emphasis on molecular passivation effects on FET device characteristics upon immobilization of organic molecules and an electrostatic model for FET-based biosensors.

A comprehensive Analysis of Nanoscale Transistor Based Biosensor: A Review

2021

Imperative introduction of biosensor in the field of medicine, defence, food safety, security and environmental contamination detection acquired paramount attraction. Thus the foundation of the fame of biosensors in detecting wide scope of biomolecules in innumerable fields has driven researchers in advancement of biosensor and enhancing more updates in devices. Among all semiconductor-FET based biosensors grab attraction due to their miniaturization, mass production, ultra-sensitive in nature, improved lifetime, rapid response and reduce thermal budgets. In this review, field effect based biosensors sensitive to ions their principle model along with pros and cons of different structures. Various performance characteristics for semiconductor based biosensor are explored along with detection of label free analytes such as tuberculosis, glucose, antigen 85-B with ISFET. Following with comprehensive detail on MOSFET junction less Silicon based Dual Gate Biosensor with their design para...

On the Use of Scalable NanoISFET Arrays of Silicon with Highly Reproducible Sensor Performance for Biosensor Applications

ACS Omega, 2016

As a prerequisite to the development of real label-free bioassay applications, a high-throughput top−down nanofabrication process is carried out with a combination of nanoimprint lithography, anisotropic wet-etching, and photolithography methods realizing nanoISFET arrays that are then analyzed for identical sensor characteristics. Here, a newly designed array-based sensor chip exhibits 32 high aspect ratio silicon nanowires (SiNWs) laid out in parallel with 8 unit groups that are connected to a very highly doped, Π-shaped common source and individual drain contacts. Intricately designed contact lines exert equal feed-line resistances and capacitances to homogenize the sensor response as well as to minimize parasitic transport effects and to render easy integration of a fluidic layer on top. The scalable nanofabrication process as outlined in this article casts out a total of 2496 nanowires (NWs) on a 4 inch p-type silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, yielding 78 sensor chips based on nanoISFET arrays. The sensor platform exhibiting high-performance transistor characteristics in buffer solutions is thoroughly characterized using stateof-the-art surface and electrical measurement techniques. Deploying a pH sensor in liquid buffers after high-quality gas-phase silanization, nanoISEFT arrays demonstrate typical pH sensor behavior with sensitivity as high as 43 ± 3 mV•pH −1 and a deviceto-device variation of 7% at the wafer scale. Demonstration of a high-density sensor platform with uniform characteristics such as nanoISFET arrays of silicon (Si) in a routine and refined nanofabrication process may serve as an ideal solution deployable for real assay-based applications.