title: Feasibility Study of Extended-Gate-Type Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistors for Neural Recording.
abstract: In this research, a high performance silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (transconductance as high as 34 µS and sensitivity as 84 nS/mV) is extensively studied and directly compared with planar passive microelectrode arrays for neural recording application. Electrical and electrochemical characteristics are carefully characterized in a very well-controlled manner. We especially focused on the signal amplification capability and intrinsic noise of the transistors. A neural recording system using both silicon nanowire field-effect transistor-based active-type microelectrode array and platinum black microelectrode-based passive-type microelectrode array are implemented and compared. An artificial neural spike signal is supplied as input to both arrays through a buffer solution and recorded simultaneously. Recorded signal intensity by the silicon nanowire transistor was precisely determined by an electrical characteristic of the transistor, transconductance. Signal-to-noise ratio was found to be strongly dependent upon the intrinsic 1/f noise of the silicon nanowire transistor. We found how signal strength is determined and how intrinsic noise of the transistor determines signal-to-noise ratio of the recorded neural signals. This study provides in-depth understanding of the overall neural recording mechanism using silicon nanowire transistors and solid design guideline for further improvement and development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. hongki.kang@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hongki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. jyeon@nobelab.kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jee-Yeon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. ykchoi@ee.kaist.ac.kr.|KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. ykchoi@ee.kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Yang-Kyu
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. ynam@kaist.ac.kr.|KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea. ynam@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Yoonkey
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nam
mesh_terms: D005240:Feasibility Studies; D053770:Nanowires; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D012825:Silicon; D014173:Transistors, Electronic
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon
keywords: 1/f noise; field-effect transistor (FETs); microelectrode array; neural recording; random telegraph noise; silicon nanowire