Nanoscale Hybrid Electronic Systems

Last week, we enjoyed a nice mountain tour in the Susten region together with the Nanoelectronics group. Thanks to Clevin & Simon for organizing it!

Abendliche Tea Party mit Physik beim Spielzeugmuseum in Riehen.

Anlässlich der Finissage der Ausstellung „Merk- und merkerwürdig Im Wunderland”, fand am Sonntag 10. July eine grosse Tea-Party im Spielzeumuseum statt. Jüngere und ältere konnten sich da auch von physikalischen Experimenten verblüffen lassen.

Am 21. Mai 2016 fand in Gelterkinden die wissenschaftliche Publikumsausstellung Nano- und Quantenwelten in Gelterkinden statt. Mit vereinten Kräften haben es das Departement Physik, das Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) und die Gemeinde Gelterkinden geschaff t, in kürzester Zeit diesen Aktionstag gemeinsam zu realisieren. Ziel war es, Transparenz zu leben sowie das gegenseitige Verständnis und die Wertschätzung zwischen Stadt und Land sowie Universität und Gesellschaft zu fördern. Dieser vereinte Eff ort resultierte in einem grossen Erfolg: Über 800 Besucherinnen und Besucher, Gross und Klein, fanden trotz Traumwetter an einem Samstag den Weg in die Mehrzweckhalle in Gelterkinden, wo sie sich an den verschiedenen Ständen, Vorträgen und sonstigen Aktivitäten über den neusten Stand der Physikforschung informieren und vergnügen konnten. Es war inspirierend und motivierend zu sehen, auf wie viel Neugier, Interesse und Fragen unsere Lehr- und Forschungsaktivitäten in der Bevölkerung gestossen sind.

Source: Universität Basel “Uniintern” magazine, 01/2016 https://www.unibas.ch/de/Mitarbeitendenportal/Aktuell/Mitarbeitendenmagazin-uniintern.html

The detection of biomarkers at very low concentration and low cost is increasinglyimportant for clinical diagnosis. Moreover, monitoring affinities for receptor-antagonist interactions by time-resolved measurements is crucial for drug discovery and development. Biosensors based on ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (BioFETs) are promising candidates for being integrated into CMOS structures and cost-effective production. The detection of DNA and proteins with silicon nanowires has been successfully demonstrated using high affinity systems such as the biotin-streptavidin interaction. Here, we show the time-resolved label-free detection of the interaction of the bacterial FimH lectin with an immobilized mannose ligand on gold-coated silicon nanoribbon BioFETs. By comparing our results with a commercial state of the art surface plasmon resonance system, additional surface effects become visible when using this charge based detection method. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effect of sensor area on signal-to-noise ratio and estimate the theoretical limit of detection.

Label-Free FimH Protein Interaction Analysis Using Silicon Nanoribbon BioFETs
Mathias Wipf, Ralph Stoop, Giulio Navarra, Said Rabbani, Beat Ernst, Kristine Bedner, Christian Schönenberger, Michel Calame
ACS Sensors,  1(6), 781-789 (2016), DOI:10.1021/acssensors.6b00089

On May 4th, during the plenary session of the EMRS 2016 Spring Meeting (Lille, France), Kishan Thodkar was awarded with the first prize in the E-MRS Reach.Out! competition. 

Reach.Out! is a science communication competition that aims to engage the members of the European Materials Science community who have designed, organised and implemented a public outreach activity in the EU. This outreach activity must be related to Advanced Materials and its main aim must have been to uncover, to the non-specialists, one or more of the following aspects of work within this field: its applications, its impact on the creation of sustainable societies, its impact on the economy, the people behind the scenes, the complexity of the work done, and of course, possible controversies etc.

Anton talked about “Self-assembled nanoparticle arrays with graphene contacts” (talk J.VI.10) at Symposium J;

Kishan reported about “Characterization of HMDS-treated CVD Graphene” (Y.15.32) during the poster session of Symposium Y;

and Michel reported about “Si nanoribbon transistors for chemical and biochemical sensing” (talk O.4.1) at Symposium O.

Ionic gradients play a crucial role in the physiology of the human body, ranging from metabolism in cells to muscle contractions or brain activities. To monitor these ions, inexpensive, label-free chemical sensing devices are needed. Field-effect transistors (FETs) based on silicon (Si) nanowires or nanoribbons (NRs) have a great potential as future biochemical sensors as they allow for the integration in microscopic devices at low production costs. Integrating NRs in dense arrays on a single chip expands the field of applications to implantable electrodes or multifunctional chemical sensing platforms. Ideally, such a platform is capable of detecting numerous species in a complex analyte. Here, we demonstrate the basis for simultaneous sodium and fluoride ion detection with a single sensor chip consisting of arrays of gold-coated SiNR FETs. A microfluidic system with individual channels allows modifying the NR surfaces with self-assembled monolayers of two types of ion receptors sensitive to sodium and fluoride ions. The functionalization procedure results in a differential setup having active fluoride- and sodium-sensitive NRs together with bare gold control NRs on the same chip. Comparing functionalized NRs with control NRs allows the compensation of non-specific contributions from changes in the background electrolyte concentration and reveals the response to the targeted species.

Implementing Silicon Nanoribbon Field-Effect Transistors as Arrays for Multiple Ion Detection
Ralph L. Stoop, MathiasWipf, Steffen Müller, Kristine Bedner, Iain A. Wright, Colin J. Martin, Edwin C. Constable, Axel Fanget, Christian Schönenberger and Michel Calame
Biosensors 6(2), 21 (2016)