Search

An Ultrathin (~10 nm) InN ion sensitive field effect transistor (ISFET) with gate regions functionalized with phosphotyrosine (p-Tyr) is proposed to detect calcium ions (Ca2+) in aqueous solution. The ISFET was miniaturized to a chip size of 1.1 mm by 1.5 mm and integrated at the tip of a hypodermic injection needle (18 G) for real-time and continuous monitoring. The sensor shows a current variation ratio of 1.11% with per decade change of Ca2+ and a detection limit of 10-6 M. The response time of 5 sec. reveals its great potential for accomplishing fast detection in chemical and physiological sensing applications. The sensor would be applied in medical diagnosis and used to monitor continuous and real-time variations of Ca2+ levels in human blood in the near future.

A new kind of microdroplet-based biological protein sensor is presented. The sensor was made by placing silicon oil on gold film with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The surface tension dominates the sensitivity of the sensor. Using mercaptoundecanoic acid (11-MUA) as the sensor’s SAM layer, the sensor can detect 0.5 mg/ml, 20 μg/ml, and 0.4 μg/ml bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein solutions in a control volume of 0.5ml. The sensor’s reaction time for concentrations of 0.5 mg/ml, 20 μg/ml, and 0.4μg/ml protein solutions was 15, 60 and 120 minutes, respectively. As the size of microdroplet decreased, the change of contact angle increased.