A microfluidic field-effect transistor biosensor with rolled-up indium nitride microtubes

Pengfei Song; Hao Fu; Yongjie Wang; Cheng Chen; Pengfei Ou; Roksana Tonny Rashid; Sixuan Duan; Jun Song; Zetian Mi; Xinyu Liu

doi:10.1016/j.bios.2021.113264

A microfluidic field-effect transistor biosensor with rolled-up indium nitride microtubes

Biosens Bioelectron. 2021 Oct 15:190:113264. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113264. Epub 2021 May 1.

Authors

Pengfei Song¹, Hao Fu², Yongjie Wang³, Cheng Chen⁴, Pengfei Ou⁵, Roksana Tonny Rashid⁶, Sixuan Duan⁷, Jun Song⁵, Zetian Mi⁸, Xinyu Liu⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G8, Canada; Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0C3, Canada; School of Advanced Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, 111 Ren'ai Road, Suzhou, 215000, China.
² Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G8, Canada; Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0C3, Canada.
³ School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology-Shenzhen, 1 Pingshan Road, Shenzhen, 518000, China.
⁴ School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 1 Dongxiang Road, Xi'an, 710000, China.
⁵ Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, 3610 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0C5, Canada.
⁶ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0E9, Canada.
⁷ School of Advanced Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, 111 Ren'ai Road, Suzhou, 215000, China.
⁸ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0E9, Canada; Department Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
⁹ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G8, Canada. Electronic address: xyliu@mie.utoronto.ca.

PMID: 34225055
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113264

Abstract

Field-effect-transistor (FET) biosensors capable of rapidly detecting disease-relevant biomarkers have long been considered as a promising tool for point-of-care (POC) diagnosis. Rolled-up nanotechnology, as a batch fabrication strategy for generating three-dimensional (3D) microtubes, has been demonstrated to possess unique advantages for constructing FET biosensors. In this paper, we report a new approach combining the two fascinating technologies, the FET biosensor and the rolled-up microtube, to develop a microfluidic diagnostic biosensor. We integrated an excellent biosensing III-nitride material-indium nitride (InN)-into a rolled-up microtube and used it as the FET channel. The InN possesses strong, intrinsic, and stable electron accumulation (~10¹³ cm^-2) on its surface, thereby providing a high device sensitivity. Multiple rolled-up InN microtube FET biosensors fabricated on the same substrate were integrated with a microfluidic channel for convenient fluids handling, and shared the same external electrode (inserted into the microchannel outlet) for gating voltage modulation. Using human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody as a model disease marker, we characterized the analytical performance of the developed biosensor and achieved a limit of detection (LOD) of 2.5 pM for serum samples spiked with HIV gp41 antibodies. The rolled-up InN microtube FET biosensor represents a new type of III-nitride-based FET biosensor and holds significant potential for practical POC diagnosis.

Keywords: Biosensor; Disease diagnostics; Field-effect transistor; Indium nitride; Rolled-up microtube.

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques*
Humans
Indium
Microfluidics
Transistors, Electronic

Substances

Indium
indium nitride