High-sensitivity nanoscale wire sensors
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- exposing a nanoscale wire, having a reaction entity immobilized relative thereto, to a solution suspected of containing an analyte that the reaction entity is able to bind,wherein the nanoscale wire has a Debye screening length, when the nanoscale wire is placed in the solution, that is greater than the average cross-sectional dimension of the nanoscale wire.
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Accused Products
Abstract
One aspect of the invention provides a nanoscale wire that has improved sensitivity, for example, as the carrier concentration in the wire is controlled by an external gate voltage. In one set of embodiments, the nanoscale wire has a Debye screening length that is greater than the average cross-sectional dimension of the nanoscale wire when the nanoscale wire is exposed to a solution suspected of containing an analyte. In certain instances, the Debye screening length associated with the carriers inside nanoscale wire may be adjusted by adjusting the voltage, for example, a gate voltage applied to an FET structure. In some cases, the nanoscale wire can be operated under conditions where the carriers in the nanoscale wire are depleted and the nanoscale wire has a conductance that is not linearly proportional to the voltage applied to the nanoscale wire sensor device, for example, via a gate electrode.
274 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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exposing a nanoscale wire, having a reaction entity immobilized relative thereto, to a solution suspected of containing an analyte that the reaction entity is able to bind, wherein the nanoscale wire has a Debye screening length, when the nanoscale wire is placed in the solution, that is greater than the average cross-sectional dimension of the nanoscale wire. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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2. A method, comprising:
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exposing a nanoscale wire, having a reaction entity immobilized relative thereto, to a solution suspected of containing an analyte that the reaction entity is able to bind; and operating the nanoscale wire under conditions wherein the nanoscale wire has a conductance that is not linearly proportional to voltage applied to the nanoscale wire.
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Specification