Surface Cleaning of the Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor for Gene Detection

Abstract

The efficiency of DNA immobilization by using various surface cleaning methods is studied in this work. The degree of surface cleaning is evaluated by the surface tension measurement to reveal the contribution from the polar and apolar terms. The observation from the fluorescent microscope images indicates the effectiveness of surface clean by the acetone and ethanol mixtures, as well as the sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide mixtures. We also fabricate a series of back-gated, 60-nm nanowired (NW) field-effect transistor (FET) sensors for mutation gene detection by following the developed acetone and ethanol mixtures. Electrical properties of the NWFET sensor demonstrate the n-channel depletion characteristics. The current of the sensor is reduced once the attachment of negative charge molecules. The single-stranded capture DNA is chemically immobilized onto the surface of silicon NWFET by three-step reactions. The sensor surface demonstrates the great performance of current shift after the suitable cleaning. The NWFET sensor is successfully applied to detect the BRAF(V599E) mutation genes from the hybridized processes. The sensing behaviour estimated from the electrical signal reaches the femtomolar level.