A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Surface Functionalization of Ion-Sensitive Floating-Gate Field-Effect Transistors With Organic Electronics
Authors: Qi Zhang, Himadri S. Majumdar, Matti Kaisti, Alok Prabhu, Ari Ivaska, Ronald Österbacka, Arifur Rahman, Kalle Levon
Publication year: 2015
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
Volume: 62
Issue: 4
First page : 1291
Last page: 1298
Number of pages: 8
ISSN: 0018-9383
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2015.2396996
Electrically conducting polymers are advantageous hybrid materials for microelectronic biosensors due to their high bandgap sensitivity, possibilities for nanoscale surface area formation, and well-developed surface bioconjugation strategies. In this paper, we investigated whether those organic conductors can also be used to functionalize ion-sensitive floating-gate field-effect transistors (ISFGFETs) designed to measure biological binding events. We first subjected our device to 100% relative humidity (RH) and proved its viability in such a humid environment. Subsequently, we drop-casted viscoelastic polyaniline emeraldine salt on pristine transistors to construct organo-functionalized devices. The modified ISFGFETs were stable in aqueous environments and sensitive to cationic polyethyleneimine. The directions of the ISFGFET threshold voltage (V-T) shifts agree with the corresponding open-circuit potential variations for the same reaction and pH-sensitive behaviors of Al2O3 sensing layer on the transistor. Such organo-modified ISFGFET sensor arrays are promising alternatives to traditional conductive polymer-based potentiometric biosensors due to their signal amplification, high throughput, and scalability advantages.