Silver growth on micropatterned DNA chips: effect of growth conditions and morphology on I-V behavior.

An approach to the design of DNA-based electronics is presented, in which standard microfabrication processes are integrated with lithographic patterning of single-stranded oligonucleotides followed by hybridization to gold-labeled, complementary oligonucleotides and subsequent silver enhancement for signal amplification. The resulting bioinorganic devices demonstrate micron-sized geometric features, very little non-specific silver growth, a distinct silver morphology in the patterned region, and a 10(9)-fold increase in conductivity across an electrode gap when compared with control devices. This approach may prove useful for the fabrication of high fidelity, high-density arrays for DNA-based biosensing applications.