Transport Phenomena in Biological Field Effect Transistors

Abstract

A mathematical model for simulating biological field effect transistor (Bio-FET) experiments is introduced. It takes the form of a nonlinear equation that describes evolution of reacting species concentration at the boundary coupled to a diffusion equation. Using analytic techniques, this coupled system of equations is reduced to a singular integrodifferential equation (IDE). A numerical approximation of this equation is developed that achieves greater than first-order accuracy in time and greater than second-order accuracy in space, despite the presence of a singular temporal convolution kernel and a discontinuous boundary condition. The mathematical model was validated using Bio-FET data, and stochastic regression was employed to separate signal from noise. Results show that our IDE provides a robust way of estimating important parameters such as diffusion coefficients and kinetic rate constants.