Highly sensitive pH measurements using a transistor composed of a large array of parallel silicon nanowires

Abstract

Silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (SiNW FETs) have emerged as good candidates for ultra-sensitive electrical detection of biological species, presenting a label-free alternative to colorimetry and fluorescence techniques. Here, a top-down approach has been used to fabricate the SiNW FETs using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. As in previous work, a change of the transistor conductance according to the pH of the solution is observed on a large pH interval [3–10.5], even for small variations of 0.1 pH units. The influence of several physico-chemical parameters such as gate voltage and buffer salinity, usually not adequately taken into account in previous papers, is discussed to achieve a better understanding of the detection phenomena.