Silicon device-based miniaturized biosensors for healthcare & IoT

Abstract

Manufacturable, miniaturized, and high-sensitivity biosensors have the potential to bring transformative advances in remote healthcare. The talk focuses on silicon device-based low-power biosensors for portable applications in early disease diagnostics and continuous monitoring. Two biosensor types are discussed: fin field effect transistor (FET) and bipolar junction transistor (BJT) based sensors that measure analytes from aqueous solutions such as sweat, saliva, etc. Results for optimized HfO2 finFET biosensors with CMOS-compatible design and fabrication are discussed.[1] These finFET sensors are developed for hand-held early disease diagnostic applications. The finFET biosensors have been licensed for commercialization, [2] and are technology transferred to a CMOS foundry for qualification and fabrication.[3] Challenges associated with nanofabrication, sensing surface functionalization, and protein detection are discussed. The talk also discusses recently proposed BJT-based biosensors.[4] The BJT device is shown to be a superior transducer in comparison to a FET for continuous monitoring applications. The BJT biosensors have an inherently simpler one-point calibration procedure and are particularly well suited for highly automated sensing applications both in healthcare (e.g. wearables) and IoT (e.g. soil nutrient sensing). Furthermore, the BJT sensors have high sensitivity and resolution and are manufacturable. Examples of BJT biosensor applications in life sciences [5,6] and IoT [7] are discussed. References: [1] Sufi Zafar et al, ACS Nano, 2018. [2] NanoDx™ Announces Licensing Collaboration with IBM ... [3] SkyWater and NanoDx™ Partner to Develop and Produce Nanoscale Sensors for Rapid COVID-19 Testing and Other Vital Diagnostics | Business Wire [4] Sufi Zafar et al, Scientific Reports-Nature Publishing Group, 2017. [5] Payel Das and Sufi Zafar, ACS Nano, 2015. [6] Y. Xiong et. al, ACS Nano, 2020. [7] Sufi Zafar et al. IEEE IEDM Proceedings, 2023.