Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Semiconductor-Based Biosensing Chip
for Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Toshiya Sakata
Abstract
Nano-micro and semiconductor technologies can be used to develop
novel biosensing devices for molecular recognition and cellular functional analysis.
These devices offer key advantages over conventional techniques, such as high
sensitivity, high accuracy, and high throughput. By use of field-effect transistors
(FETs) based on semiconductor technology, we investigate electrical characteristics
of cell membrane with molecular charges on the gate surface as sensing area.
Moreover, we analyze electrical phenomena of cell membranes and variability
of drug responses for each organ (liver, pancreas, and so on) using FETs. For
high-performance screening and sensing devices in regenerative medicine and
pharmaceutical lead discovery, we utilize field-effect-based drug screening devices
crossing disciplines between biology and electronics.
6.1
Background
In 1956, John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley were jointly
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for their researches on semiconductors and
their discovery of the transistor effect.” The semiconductor technology has been
developed in the field of electronic device industry according to Moore's Law [
1
].
The size of gate has reached to nm scale (
a few 10 nm) in the present day,
and reducing of gate size has been reported to be difficult in case of silicon-based
semiconductor technology. The downsizing of gate will be realized by the use of
carbon nanotube- or graphene-based nano-materials in the future.
T. Sakata (
)
Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan
e-mail:
sakata@biofet.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
