Silicon nanowire field-effect-transistor based biosensors: from sensitive to ultra-sensitive.
Silicon nanowire field effect transistors (SiNW-FETs) have shown great promise as biosensors in highly sensitive, selective, real-time and label-free measurements. While applications of SiNW-FETs for detection of biological species have been described in several publications, less attention has been devoted to summarize the conjugating methods involved in linking organic bio-receptors with the inorganic transducer and the strategies of improving the sensitivity of devices. This article attempts to focus on summarizing the various organic immobilization approaches and discussing various sensitivity improving strategies, that include (I) reducing non-specific binding, (II) alignment of the probes, (III) enhancing signals by charge reporter, (IV) novel architecture structures, and (V) sensing in the sub-threshold regime.
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Mo-Yuan
MY
Shen
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Electronic address: liborran@googlemail.com.
Bor-Ran
BR
Li
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Electronic address: ykl@cc.nctu.edu.tw.
Yaw-Kuen
YK
Li
D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003217:Conductometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D014173:Transistors, Electronic
D012825:Silicon
Biosensor; Field-effect transistor; Sensitivity enhancement; Surface modification