Low-cost top-down zinc oxide nanowire sensors through a highly transferable ion beam etching for healthcare applications

Conference proceedings article

Authors / Editors

Ditshego, Nonofo

Research Areas

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Publication Details

Author list: Sun K, Zeimpekis I, Hu C, Ditshego NMJ, Thomas O, de Planque MRR, Chong HMH, Morgan H, Ashburn P

Publisher: Elsevier

Place: AMSTERDAM

Publication year: 2016

Journal: Microelectronic Engineering (0167-9317)

Journal acronym: MICROELECTRON ENG

Volume number: 153

Start page: 96

End page: 100

Number of pages: 5

ISSN: 0167-9317

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

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Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate a wafer-level zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire fabrication process using ion beam etching and a spacer etch technique. The proposed process can accurately define nanowires without an advanced photolithography and provide a high yield over a 6-inch wafer. The fabricated nanowires are 36 nm wide and 86 nm thick and present excellent transistor characteristics. The pH sensitivity using a liquid gate was found to be 46.5 mV/pH, while the pH sensitivity using a bottom gate showed a sensitivity of 366 mV/pH, which is attributed to the capacitance coupling between the top- and bottom-gates. The maximum process temperature used in the fabrication of the nanowire sensors is optimized to be 200 degrees C (after wet oxidation) which makes it applicable to low-cost substrates such as glass and plastic. The Ion Beam Etching (IBE) process in this work is shown to be highly transferable and can therefore be directly used to form nanowires of different materials, such as polysilicon and molybdenum disulfide, by only an adjustment of the etch time. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

biosensor, Ion beam etch, Nanowire, pH sensing, zinc oxide

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