CMOS-Compatible Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor Biosensor: Technology Development toward Commercialization

Abstract

Owing to their two-dimensional confinements, silicon nanowires display remarkable optical, magnetic, and electronic properties. Of special interest has been the development of advanced biosensing approaches based on the field effect associated with silicon nanowires (SiNWs). Recent advancements in top-down fabrication technologies have paved the way to large scale production of high density and quality arrays of SiNW field effect transistor (FETs), a critical step towards their integration in real-life biosensing applications. A key requirement toward the fulfilment of SiNW FETs’ promises in the bioanalytical field is their efficient integration within functional devices. Aiming to provide a comprehensive roadmap for the development of SiNW FET based sensing platforms, we critically review and discuss the key design and fabrication aspects relevant to their development and integration within complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Transmitter and Receiver Architectures for Molecular Communications: A Survey on Physical Design With Modulation, Coding, and Detection Techniques

“…However, their reliable and cost-effective fabrication is still an important open challenge [148], [168]. Comprehensive reviews exist on the performance of SiNW bioFETs, their functionality in biomedical applications, such as disease diagnostics, their top-down and bottom-up fabrication paradigms, and integration within complementary metaloxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology [163], [169], [170]. It is concluded that SiNW bioFETs must be designed according to the requirements arose by applications since defining an ideal characteristic for these devices is difficult.…”

A Novel Dry Selective Isotropic Atomic Layer Etching of SiGe for Manufacturing Vertical Nanowire Array with Diameter Less than 20 nm

“…In such case, NW transistors could be designed where the carrier transport through the channel is affected and signaled in response to "absorption of" or "interaction with" the gas molecules. For simplicity, these NW sensors are laterally formed on the oxide [3][4][5][6][7]. In these NW transistors, a good Ohmic contacts with low contact resistance, high signal-to-noise, and a good isolation of NW contacts are the main issues.…”

Surface Modification of Silicon Nanowire Based Field Effect Transistors with Stimuli Responsive Polymer Brushes for Biosensing Applications

“…Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) do not only provide excellent electrical but also superior optical properties, enabling their usage also as optical biosensors [10][11][12]. Furthermore, modern semiconducting manufacturing techniques offer rewards in terms of miniaturization, parallel sensing, and integration [13,14]. Here, among other systems [15][16][17], silicon nanowire structured field effect transistors (FETs) are suitable for detecting of a wide variety of biological entities (i.e., DNA, nucleic acids, proteins, viruses, and cells), each with supreme limit of detection [18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”