Nanoscale field effect transistors for biomolecular sensors and other applications

摘要

The present invention relates generally to nanoscale wires including nanoscale wires used as sensors. In some cases, nanoscale wires, unlike many prior art techniques, can be used to directly determine an analyte even in a relatively complex environment such as blood. In some aspects, the nanoscale wire forms at least a portion of the gate of the field effect transistor, and in certain aspects, different periodically varying voltages or other electrical signals can be applied to the field effect transistor. For example, in one set of embodiments, sinusoidally varying voltages of different frequencies can be applied to the nanoscale wire and the source electrode of the field effect transistor. The electrical conductance or other property of the nanoscale wire in response to the periodically varying voltage can then be determined and used to determine species binding.