Nanogap chemical and biochemical sensors
First Claim
1. An electronic sensor comprising,a substrate wherein a first and a second electrode are attached to the substrate,wherein the first electrode has a face and wherein the second electrode has a face and there is a distance separating the face of the first electrode from the face of the second electrode that is defined by a point on the face of the first electrode and the nearest point on the face of the second electrode and the distance is less than 100 nm,wherein the separation between the first electrode and the second electrode forms a cavity capable of containing a fluid,wherein two or more posts comprised of an insulating material extend from the face of the first electrode to the face of the second electrode, andwherein the electrodes are coupled to conducting elements through which voltage can be applied to the electrodes and a current measured from the electrodes.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Devices and methods are presented for electronic sensing of chemical and biochemical analytes. An electronic sensor having a at least two electrodes separated by a nanoscale gap wherein the separation between the first electrode and the second electrode forms a cavity capable of containing a fluid wherein two or more posts comprised of an insulating material extend into the cavity from the face of the first electrode to the face of the second electrode. Optionally, the cavity is closed with a bead. Devices according to embodiments of the invention are capable of detecting chemicals and biochemicals through redox cycling events. Additionally, devices and methods according to embodiments of the invention are adapted to identify and sequence nucleic acid molecules.
-
Citations
24 Claims
-
1. An electronic sensor comprising,
a substrate wherein a first and a second electrode are attached to the substrate, wherein the first electrode has a face and wherein the second electrode has a face and there is a distance separating the face of the first electrode from the face of the second electrode that is defined by a point on the face of the first electrode and the nearest point on the face of the second electrode and the distance is less than 100 nm, wherein the separation between the first electrode and the second electrode forms a cavity capable of containing a fluid, wherein two or more posts comprised of an insulating material extend from the face of the first electrode to the face of the second electrode, and wherein the electrodes are coupled to conducting elements through which voltage can be applied to the electrodes and a current measured from the electrodes.
-
2. The device of claim wherein the distance is between 10 nm and 80 nm.
-
3. The device of claim wherein the distance is between 10 nm and 50 nm.
-
14. A method for analyzing a nucleic acid in an electronic sensor comprising:
-
placing a nucleic acid molecule to be sequenced in a sensing cavity of the electronic sensor wherein the sensing cavity of the electronic sensor comprises at least two electrodes and a plurality of posts in the cavity comprised of an insulating material that extend from a face of the first electrode to a face of the second electrode, terminating a growing complementary nucleic acid polymer hybridized to the nucleic acid molecule to be sequenced with a nuclease resistant nucleotide, providing, to the sensing cavity of the electronic sensor, a solution comprising a polymerase enzyme, an exonuclease enzyme, and a nucleotide triphosphate comprising a redox group attached to a phosphate group of the nucleotide triphosphate, under conditions that allow a complementary nucleotide triphosphate comprising a redox group to be incorporated into the growing complementary polymer by the polymerase enzyme and excised from the growing, complementary strand by the exonuclease enzyme a plurality of times, and detecting, the presence of redox molecules that are a product of the incorporation and excision of a nucleotide triphosphate comprising a redox group into and out of the complementary polymer, wherein detection occurs through the detection of a current that is the product of redox cycling of the product redox molecules. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
Specification