title: Highly Stable Operation of Metal Oxide Nanowire Transistors in Ambient Humidity, Water, Blood, and Oxygen.
abstract: The capability for robust operation of nanoscale transistors under harsh environments is equally important as their operating parameters such as high on-currents, high mobility, and high sensing selectivity. For electronic/biomedical applications, in particular, transistor operation must be stable under diverse conditions including ambient humidity, water, blood, and oxygen. Here we demonstrate the use of a self-assembled monolayer of octadecylphosphonic acid (OD-PA) to passivate a functionalized nanowire transistor, allowing the device to operate consistently in such environments. In contrast, without passivation, the characteristics (especially the threshold voltage) of identical nanowire transistors were dramatically altered under these conditions. Furthermore, the OD-PA-passivated transistor shows no signs of long-term stability deterioration and maintains equally high sensing selectivity to light under the harsh environments because of OD-PA's optical transparency. These results demonstrate the suitability of OD-PA passivation methods for fabricating commercial nanoelectronics.
authors.affiliation: †Department of Physics, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do 443-760, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Taekyung
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: †Department of Physics, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do 443-760, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jihye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bong
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, California 95616-5294, United States.
authors.forename: Edmund M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, California 95616-5294, United States.
authors.forename: Sangtae
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: †Department of Physics, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do 443-760, Republic of Korea.|‡Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, California 95616-5294, United States.
authors.forename: Sanghyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ju
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006813:Humidity; D008422:Materials Testing; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014173:Transistors, Electronic; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D010100:Oxygen; D015034:Zinc Oxide
keywords: environmental stability; hydrophobicity; nanowire transistor; self-assembled monolayer; sensing selectivity