Tunable nanowire Wheatstone bridge for improved sensitivity in molecular recognition

摘要

Poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a strong limiting factor on the performance of nanowire field-effect transistor based sensing of molecules. Using an advanced measurement configuration such as a Wheatstone bridge, electrical noise, drift due to fluid dynamics, thermal fluctuations, and chemical changes of the gate oxide can be drastically reduced. Here, a miniature Wheatstone bridge has been lithographically fabricated. All four arms consist of silicon nanowires, while two of the arms are tunable by top gate electrodes to enable balancing of the bridge. We have studied the performance of the bridge for pH detection. The signal-to-noise ratio is significantly enhanced in the balanced configuration, which also helps to reduce overall drift.