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In this study, we describe the urinary quantification of apolipoprotein A II protein (APOA2 protein), a biomarker for the diagnosis of bladder cancer, using an n-type polycrystalline silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (poly-SiNW-FET). The modification of poly-SiNW-FET by magnetic graphene with long-chain acid groups (MGLA) synthesized via Friedel-Crafts acylation was compared with that obtained using short-chain acid groups (MGSA). Compared with MGSA, the MGLA showed a higher immobilization degree and bioactivity to the anti-APOA2 antibody (Ab) due to its lower steric hindrance. In addition, the magnetic properties enabled rapid separation and purification during Ab immobilization, ultimately preserving its bioactivity. The Ab-MGLA/poly-SiNW-FET exhibited a linear dependence of relative response to the logarithmical concentration in a range between 19.5pgmL(-1) and 1.95µgmL(-1), with a limit of detection (LOD) of 6.7pgmL(-1). An additional washing step before measurement aimed at excluding the interfering biocomponents ensured the reliability of the assay. We conclude that our biosensor efficiently distinguishes mean values of urinary APOA2 protein concentrations between patients with bladder cancer (29-344ngmL(-1)) and those with hernia (0.425-9.47ngmL(-1))., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

For on-site clinical diagnosis of biomolecules, the detection performances of most point-of-care (POC) biosensor devices are limited by undesired cross-detection of other non-analyte proteins in patient serum samples and other complex samples. To conquer this obstacle, this work presents a fully integrated bottom-gate poly-silcion nanowire (polySi NW) biosensor system-on-chip (SoC) to enhance the detection performance of cardiac-specific troponin-I (cTnI) concentration levels in serum samples. By applying proper electrical potential at the bottom gate under polySi NW biosensor, the biosensor response to cTnI biomarker can be improved by at least 16 fold in 50% phantom serum samples. The experimental result shows its detection range is from 3.2 × 10(-13)M(mol l(-1)) to 3.2 × 10(-10)M. This enhancement can be attributed to the electrostatic interactions between target biomolecules and voltage-applied bottom gate electrodes. This is the first time that a polySi NW CMOS biosensor chip has shown feasibilities to detect specific biomarkers in serum samples. Therefore, the developed technology paves the way toward on-field applications of CMOS compatible SiNW biosensing technologies and it can be employed for future biomolecular analysis in on-site serum diagnosis applications., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This paper reports a versatile nano-sensor technology using "top-down" poly-silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs) in the conventional Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible semiconductor process. The nanowire manufacturing technique reduced nanowire width scaling to 50 nm without use of extra lithography equipment, and exhibited superior device uniformity. These n type polysilicon nanowire FETs have positive pH sensitivity (100 mV/pH) and sensitive deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection ability (100 pM) at normal system operation voltages. Specially designed oxide-nitride-oxide buried oxide nanowire realizes an electrically V(th)-adjustable sensor to compensate device variation. These nanowire FETs also enable non-volatile memory application for a large and steady V(th) adjustment window (>2 V Programming/Erasing window). The CMOS-compatible manufacturing technique of polysilicon nanowire FETs offers a possible solution for commercial System-on-Chip biosensor application, which enables portable physiology monitoring and in situ recording.

We fabricate n-channel silicon bulk FinFET with silicon nitride (Si3N4) high- \kappa , silicon nitride/silicon dioxide dual- \kappa , and silicon dioxide (SiO2) low- \kappa spacers, and compare their performance using measurements and TCAD simulations. While all the three devices show similar dc performance, the ac and transient performance of low- \kappa spacer FinFET is better due to lower parasitic capacitance ( {C}_{\mathrm {par}} ). We show that {C} _{\mathrm {par}} in SiO2 spacer FinFET is about half of that with Si3N4 spacer. When the gate length is scaled, the contribution of C \mathrm {par} compared with the intrinsic capacitance ( C \mathrm {ox} ) increases. For FinFET with Si3N4 spacers, C \mathrm {par}/C \mathrm {ox} increases from 36% at 30-nm gate length to 105% when the gate length is scaled to 10 nm, while for FinFET with SiO2 spacers, the ratio changes from 19% to 55% making the latter more suitable for scaling. For SiO2 spacer FinFET, inverter delay is about 13% and 25% lower than Si3N4 spacer FinFET for gate lengths of 30 and 10 nm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We demonstrate p-channel gate-source/drain underlapped silicon FinFET with HfO2 high- $\kappa $ spacer and compare it with its counterpart having SiO2 low- $\kappa $ spacer. The HfO2 spacer structure reduces series resistance in the underlap regions due to the large capacitive coupling between the gate and the underlap regions. Both drain current and transconductance of p-channel FinFET are higher than those of the SiO2 spacer device by about $3\times $ when biased in the saturation region, and about $1.6\times $ and $2\times $ , respectively, when biased in the linear region. Subthreshold swing and drain-induced barrier lowering are also improved by incorporating the HfO2 spacer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a self-aligned sidewall microcrystalline-silicon (\muc\-Si) dual channel, comprising a sub-50-nm channel width, a novel 3-D stackable maskless embedded metal-gate thin-film-transistor nanowire device was fabricated on top metal using a tungsten gate-stack and trilayered oxide/nitride/oxide gate dielectric. The results of using a charge-transferring mechanism based on the solution-phased pH of a phosphate buffer solution and vascular endothelial growth factor showed that \muc\-Si surfaces exhibit high potential for use in bioelectronics. The device exhibits long-term reliability regarding bioelectronic probing and is as reliable as the commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay when conducting a targeted, 100-day therapy for ovarian cancer. Thus, the proposed device exhibits potential for use in label-free, economical, and highly reliable lab-on-chip 3-D applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]