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Title: Room temperature multiplexed gas sensing using chemical-sensitive 3.5-nm-thin silicon transistors

Abstract

There is great interest in developing a low-power gas sensing technology that can sensitively and selectively quantify the chemical composition of a target atmosphere. Nanomaterials have emerged as extremely promising candidates for this technology due to their inherent low-dimensional nature and high surface-to-volume ratio. Among these, nanoscale silicon is of great interest because pristine silicon is largely inert on its own in the context of gas sensing, unless functionalized with an appropriate gas-sensitive material. We report a chemical-sensitive field-effect transistor (CS-FET) platform based on 3.5-nm-thin silicon channel transistors. Using industry-compatible processing techniques, the conventional electrically active gate stack is replaced by an ultrathin chemical-sensitive layer that is electrically nonconducting and coupled to the 3.5-nm-thin silicon channel. We demonstrate a low-power, sensitive, and selective multiplexed gas sensing technology using this platform by detecting H2S, H2, and NO2 at room temperature for environment, health, and safety in the oil and gas industry, offering significant advantages over existing technology. Moreover, the system described here can be readily integrated with mobile electronics for distributed sensor networks in environmental pollution mapping and personal air-quality monitors.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4];  [4];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering an Computer Sciences; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Berkeley sensor and Actuator Center; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering an Computer Sciences; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Berkeley sensor and Actuator Center
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering an Computer Sciences
  4. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1625968
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; 105-3113-E-007-003-CC2; 104-2628-M-007-004-MY3; 104-2221-E-007-048-MY3; 105-2633-M-007-003; 104-2622-M-007-002-CC2
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Science & Technology - Other Topics

Citation Formats

Fahad, Hossain Mohammad, Shiraki, Hiroshi, Amani, Matin, Zhang, Chuchu, Hebbar, Vivek Srinivas, Gao, Wei, Ota, Hiroki, Hettick, Mark, Kiriya, Daisuke, Chen, Yu-Ze, Chueh, Yu-Lun, and Javey, Ali. Room temperature multiplexed gas sensing using chemical-sensitive 3.5-nm-thin silicon transistors. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1602557.
Fahad, Hossain Mohammad, Shiraki, Hiroshi, Amani, Matin, Zhang, Chuchu, Hebbar, Vivek Srinivas, Gao, Wei, Ota, Hiroki, Hettick, Mark, Kiriya, Daisuke, Chen, Yu-Ze, Chueh, Yu-Lun, & Javey, Ali. Room temperature multiplexed gas sensing using chemical-sensitive 3.5-nm-thin silicon transistors. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602557
Fahad, Hossain Mohammad, Shiraki, Hiroshi, Amani, Matin, Zhang, Chuchu, Hebbar, Vivek Srinivas, Gao, Wei, Ota, Hiroki, Hettick, Mark, Kiriya, Daisuke, Chen, Yu-Ze, Chueh, Yu-Lun, and Javey, Ali. Fri . "Room temperature multiplexed gas sensing using chemical-sensitive 3.5-nm-thin silicon transistors". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602557. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1625968.
@article{osti_1625968,
title = {Room temperature multiplexed gas sensing using chemical-sensitive 3.5-nm-thin silicon transistors},
author = {Fahad, Hossain Mohammad and Shiraki, Hiroshi and Amani, Matin and Zhang, Chuchu and Hebbar, Vivek Srinivas and Gao, Wei and Ota, Hiroki and Hettick, Mark and Kiriya, Daisuke and Chen, Yu-Ze and Chueh, Yu-Lun and Javey, Ali},
abstractNote = {There is great interest in developing a low-power gas sensing technology that can sensitively and selectively quantify the chemical composition of a target atmosphere. Nanomaterials have emerged as extremely promising candidates for this technology due to their inherent low-dimensional nature and high surface-to-volume ratio. Among these, nanoscale silicon is of great interest because pristine silicon is largely inert on its own in the context of gas sensing, unless functionalized with an appropriate gas-sensitive material. We report a chemical-sensitive field-effect transistor (CS-FET) platform based on 3.5-nm-thin silicon channel transistors. Using industry-compatible processing techniques, the conventional electrically active gate stack is replaced by an ultrathin chemical-sensitive layer that is electrically nonconducting and coupled to the 3.5-nm-thin silicon channel. We demonstrate a low-power, sensitive, and selective multiplexed gas sensing technology using this platform by detecting H2S, H2, and NO2 at room temperature for environment, health, and safety in the oil and gas industry, offering significant advantages over existing technology. Moreover, the system described here can be readily integrated with mobile electronics for distributed sensor networks in environmental pollution mapping and personal air-quality monitors.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.1602557},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 3,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Schematic illustrations and detailed images of a CS-FET chip. (A) Optical microscope image of a single CS-FET functionalized with a Pd-Au sensing layer integrated with microheaters. (B) Schematic illustration of a single-chip CS-FET array functionalized with different selective sensing layers. (C) Detailed zoomed-in representation of a single CS-FET.more » (D) Cross-sectional TEM image taken across the ultrathin silicon channel as shown in (C) with the associated EDS indicating the elemental composition of a single Pd-Au CS-FET. Scale bars, 250 μm.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.