Description of My Research

Synthesis and fabrication of high-performance of n-type SiNW FETs. Most of the previous work demonstrated was on p-type SiNW, while little had been reported on n-type SiNWs due to the difficulity in synthesis of high-quality of these materials. The key issue was the controlled doping of phosphorus during CVD growth process, as well as selection of metal contact for fabrication. We demonstrated the first successful synthesis of single crystal n-type SiNW with controlled phosphorus doping, and fabricated high-performance field effect transistors, with mobilities more than 100 times greater than previous reported, and comparable to high-performance planar silicon transistors.

Label-free, highly-sensitive, real-time electrical detection of cancer marker proteins (such as prostate specific antigens, telomerase) was demonstrated by SiNW FET sensors. Both p-type and n-type SiNWs were incorporated in the same array to achieve simultaneous detection and discriminate false signals. Cancer marker proteins can be detected in low fM range, even in undiluted serum samples. In addition, detection of telomerase binding/activities was also achieved within nucleic acid assays.

Direct, real-time detection of single viruses with high selectivity was demonstrated by SiNW FET sensors. Modified with monoclonal antibodies to viruses, these SiNWs can selectively detect the binding of viruses to a single particle level. Simulaneous electrical and fluorescence measured demonstrated conclusively that conductance changes in SiNWs resulted from binding and unbinding events of viruses. Moreover, multiple viruses (such as influenza-A and adenovirus) can be selectively measured in parallel by a single SiNW device chip.

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