Performance assessment of dielectrically modulated negative capacitance germanium source vertical tunnel FET biosensor for detection of breast cancer cell lines

Abstract

The paper presents a dielectrically modulated negative capacitance Germanium source vertical tunnel FET (DM-NC-Ge-vTFET) biosensor for detection of non-tumorigenic breast cell line (MCF-10A) and breast cancer cell lines of Hs578T, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 and T47D. The proposed biosensor exploits the incorporation of ferroelectric (FE) layer with lateral and vertical band-to-band tunneling for improved detection sensitivity. The detecting strategy is determined by variations in the dielectric constant of various breast malignant cell lines. Sensitivity (Sn) is determined for both neutral and charged (positive/negative) biomolecules fordistinctive breast cell lines. Sn is determined by evaluating the shiftsin drain current. Sensitivity of 1.16 × 105 is attained for MCF-10A whereas Sn of 1.04 × 108 is realised for the T47D breast cell line for a completely filled nanogap. Additionally, the impact of FE layer thickness on the biosensor has been evaluated. It is observed that Sn of the proposed biosensor isenhanced for increase infill factor from partially to completely filled nanogap with a peak SNR value of approximately 61100. The biosensor’s selectivity and linearity have been evaluated. Lastly, the DM-NC-Ge-vTFET biosensor is benchmarked against existing published literatures andyields superior results in terms of its approximate sensitivity.