VLSI Innovation

To summarize our previous article about Bio-FETs, Biologically active field-effect transistors (BioFETs) are miniaturized silicon-based electrochemical biosensors that can detect biomolecular interactions occurring at the gates of MOSFETs. Compared to the conventional optical and mass spectrometry detection methods, BioFETs provide fast, label-free, high sensitivity and direct electronic signal readout. FET-based biosensors have the potential for developing high-throughput label-free microarrays for applications in clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, food monitoring, and bioterrorist security inspection. The following steps are involved in the fabrication of a Bio-FET system:   Finding a substrate suitable for serving as a FET site, and forming a FET on the substrate.   Exposing an active site of the FET from the substrate.   Providing a sensing film layer on the active site of FET.  Providing a receptor on the sensing film layer in order to be ...

Most people tend to perceive electronics and its applications primarily limited to multimedia entertainment, security systems, drones, autonomous systems and other component-based devices. However, these overlook the extensive applications electronics has to biology and biological systems.  The intermingling of biology and electronics is so expansive today that there are subspecialties that range from biomolecular (i.e Bioelectronics) to the gross integration of robots, biology and electronics (Biomechatronics).  One such application we intend to briefly touch upon today is Bio-FET. A field-effect-transistor-based biosensor, also referred to as Bio-FET are field-effect transistors that are gated by changes within the surface potential induced by the binding of molecules. When charged biomolecules bind to the FET gate made from dielectric material they will change the charge distribution of the underlying semiconductor material leading to a change in conductance of the FET chan...

Background CMOS foundries backed by several trillion dollars of funding have established themselves as efficient mass-production platforms that lowered the cost of microelectronic devices significantly. Since their inception, the advancements in CMOS technology have enabled industries to significantly lower costs of microelectronic devices to the extent that they're affordable to customers.  Today's foundry processes have reached the threshold of 15nm and facilitate the manufacturing of highly dense systems with millions of active elements such as Ion-Selective-Field-Effect-Transistors (ISFET).  These advancements in technology coupled with the low cost and highly integrated sensors and circuits, CMOS devices have set a new frontier and found highly varied applications in the field of Life Sciences . CMOS compatible silicon nanowires configured as field-effect transistor (Si NW-FETs) have shown notable precedence for real-time, label-free and highly sensitive detection of a wi...