Nanogap biosensors for electrical and label-free detection of biomolecular interactions

Nanotechnology. 2009 Nov 11;20(45):455502. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/20/45/455502. Epub 2009 Oct 13.

Abstract

We demonstrate nanogap biosensors for electrical and label-free detection of biomolecular interactions. Parallel fabrication of nanometer distance gaps has been achieved using a silicon anisotropic wet etching technique on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer with a finely controllable silicon device layer. Since silicon anisotropic wet etching resulted in a trapezoid-shaped structure whose end became narrower during the etching, the nanogap structure was simply fabricated on the device layer of a SOI wafer. The nanogap devices were individually addressable and a gap size of less than 60 nm was obtained. We demonstrate that the nanogap biosensors can electrically detect biomolecular interactions such as biotin/streptavidin and antigen/antibody pairs. The nanogap devices show a current increase when the proteins are bound to the surface. The current increases proportionally depending upon the concentrations of the molecules in the range of 100 fg ml(-1)-100 ng ml(-1) at 1 V bias. It is expected that the nanogap developed here could be a highly sensitive biosensor platform for label-free detection of biomolecular interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Nanostructures*
  • Nanotechnology / methods*