title: Addressing reliability and degradation of chemitransistor sensors by electrical tuning of the sensitivity.
abstract: Here we show that electrical tuning of the sensitivity of chemitransistor sensors, namely field-effect-transistors (FETs) exploiting nano/mesostructured sensing materials, can be used to effectively address two chief problems of state-of-the-art gas sensors, specifically fabrication reliability and degradation by aging. Both experimental evidences and theoretical calculations are provided to support such a result, using as a case-of-study junction field-effect-transistors (JFETs) exploiting mesostructured porous silicon (PS) as sensing material (PSJFETs) for the detection of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) at hundreds ppb. Proof of concept is given by fully compensating the effect of fabrication errors on the sensitivity of two PSJFETs integrated on the same chip, which, though identical in principle, feature sensitivities to NO(2) differing from about 30% before compensation. Although here-demonstrated for the specific case of PSJFETs, the concept of sensor reliability/aging problem compensation by sensitivity electrical-tuning can be applied to other chemitransistor sensors that exploit sensing materials different than PS.
authors: Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione: Elettronica, Informatica , Telecomunicazioni, Via G. Caruso 16, 56122 Pisa, Italy.
authors: G M
authors: GM
authors: Lazzerini
authors: L M
authors: LM
authors: Strambini
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Barillaro
mesh_terms: D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D008958:Models, Molecular; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D016062:Porosity; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry; D014173:Transistors, Electronic
chemical_list: D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide; D012825:Silicon
references: Sci Rep. 2012;2:343
references: 22461974
references: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2010 Sep 10;49(38):6830-5
references: 20715224
references: Science. 2000 Jan 28;287(5453):622-5
references: 10649989
references: Nat Mater. 2003 Jan;2(1):19-24
references: 12652667
references: Adv Mater. 2011 May 24;23(20):2306-12
references: 21608042
references: Nat Nanotechnol. 2012 Dec;7(12):825-32
references: 23142944
references: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2010 Oct 11;49(42):7632-59
references: 20718055
references: Adv Mater. 2012 Jan 3;24(1):34-51
references: 22102447
references: Adv Mater. 2012 Jan 17;24(3):398-401
references: 22183927
references: Analyst. 2007 Nov;132(11):1083-99
references: 17955141
references: Nat Mater. 2007 May;6(5):379-84
references: 17450146
references: Anal Chem. 2005 Oct 1;77(19):380A-387A
references: 16247934
references: Nanoscale. 2012 Mar 7;4(5):1760-9
references: 22297465
references: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2008;47(35):6550-70
references: 18642264