Development of an FPW Biosensor with Low Insertion Loss and High Fabrication Yield for Detection of Carcinoembryonic Antigen.
In the last two decades, various flexural plate-wave (FPW)-based biosensors with low phase velocity, low operation frequency, high sensitivity, and short response time, have been developed. However, conventional FPW transducers have low fabrication yield because controlling the thickness of silicon/isolation/metal/piezoelectric multilayer floating thin-plate is difficult. Additionally, conventional FPW devices usually have high insertion loss because of wave energy dissipation to the silicon substrate or outside area of the output interdigital transducers (IDTs). These two disadvantages hinder the application of FPW devices. To reduce the high insertion loss of FPW devices, we designed two focus-type IDTs (fan-shaped and circular, respectively) that can effectively confine the launched wave energy, and adopted a focus-type silicon-grooved reflective grating structure (RGS) that can reduce the wave propagation loss. To accurately control the thickness of the silicon thin-plate and substantially improve the fabrication yield of FPW transducers, a 60 °C/27 °C two-step anisotropic wet etching process was developed. Compared with conventional FPW devices (with parallel-type IDTs and without RGS), the proposed FPW devices have lower insertion loss (36.04 dB) and higher fabrication yield (63.88%). Furthermore, by using cystamine-based self-assembled monolayer (SAM) nanotechnology, we used the improved FPW device to develop a novel FPW-based carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) biosensor for detection of colorectal cancer, and this FPW-CEA biosensor has a low detection limit (5 ng/mL), short response time (<10 min), high sensitivity (60.16-70.06 cm²/g), and high sensing linearity (R-square = 0.859-0.980).
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. d993010003@student.nsysu.edu.tw.
Je-Wei
JW
Lan
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. iyuhuang@mail.nsysu.edu.tw.
I-Yu
IY
Huang
Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan. yuclin@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
Yu-Cheng
YC
Lin
Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry Co. Ltd., Kaohsiung 80673, Taiwan. orach3@gmail.com.
Chang-Yu
CY
Lin
Powerchip Technology Corporation, Hsinchu 30078, Taiwan. niceday810@gmail.com.
Jian-Lin
JL
Chen
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. tim06061983@gmail.com.
Chia-Hsu
CH
Hsieh
D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D004867:Equipment Design; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen
carcinoembryonic antigen biosensor; flexural plate-wave; focus-type interdigital transducers; high fabrication yield; low insertion loss; reflective grating structure