A ChemFET is a chemically-sensitive field-effect transistor, that is a

field-effect transistor The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the flow of current in a semiconductor. FETs (JFETs or MOSFETs) are devices with three terminals: ''source'', ''gate'', and ''drain''. FETs contro ...

used as a

sensor A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

for measuring

chemical concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', a ...

s in

solution Solution may refer to: * Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another * Solution (equation), in mathematics ** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds * Soluti ...

. When the target

analyte An analyte, component (in clinical chemistry), or chemical species is a substance or chemical constituent that is of interest in an analytical procedure. The purest substances are referred to as analytes, such as 24 karat gold, NaCl, water, etc. ...

concentration changes, the current through the

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

will change accordingly. Here, the analyte solution separates the source and

gate electrode The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the flow of current in a semiconductor. FETs (JFETs or MOSFETs) are devices with three terminals: ''source'', ''gate'', and ''drain''. FETs control ...

s. A concentration gradient between the solution and the gate electrode arises due to a semi-permeable membrane on the FET surface containing receptor moieties that preferentially bind the target analyte. This concentration gradient of charged analyte ions creates a chemical potential between the source and gate, which is in turn measured by the FET.

Construction

A ChemFET's source and drain are constructed as for an

ISFET An ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) is a field-effect transistor used for measuring ion concentrations in solution; when the ion concentration (such as H+, see pH scale) changes, the current through the transistor will change accord ...

, with the gate electrode separated from the source electrode by a solution. The gate electrode's interface with the solution is a semi-permeable membrane containing the receptors, and a gap to allow the substance under test to come in contact with the sensitive receptor moieties. A ChemFET's

threshold voltage The threshold voltage, commonly abbreviated as Vth or VGS(th), of a field-effect transistor (FET) is the minimum gate-to-source voltage (VGS) that is needed to create a conducting path between the source and drain terminals. It is an important s ...

depends on the concentration gradient between the analyte in solution and the analyte in contact with its receptor-embedded semi-permeable barrier. Often,

ionophore In chemistry, an ionophore () is a chemical species that reversibly binds ions. Many ionophores are lipid-soluble entities that transport ions across the cell membrane. Ionophores catalyze ion transport across hydrophobic membranes, such as liq ...

s are used to facilitate analyte ion mobility through the substrate to the receptor. For example, when targeting anions,

quaternary ammonium salts In chemistry, quaternary ammonium cations, also known as quats, are positively charged polyatomic ions of the structure , R being an alkyl group or an aryl group. Unlike the ammonium ion () and the primary, secondary, or tertiary ammonium cations ...

(such as tetraoctylammonium bromide) are used to provide cationic nature to the membrane, facilitating anion mobility through the substrate to the receptor moieties.

Applications

ChemFETs can be utilized in either liquid or gas phase to detect target analyte, requiring reversible binding of analyte with a receptor located in the gate electrode membrane. There is a wide range of applications of ChemFETs, including most notably anion or cation selective sensing. More work has been done with cation-sensing ChemFETs than anion-sensing ChemFETs. Anion-sensing is more complicated than cation-sensing in ChemFETs due to many factors, including the size, shape, geometry, polarity, and pH of the species of interest.

Practical limitations

The body of a ChemFET is generally found to be robust. However, the unavoidable requirement for a separate reference electrode makes the system more bulky overall and potentially more fragile.

History

Dutch engineer

Piet Bergveld Piet Bergveld (; born 26 January 1940) is a Dutch electrical engineer. He was professor of biosensors at the University of Twente between 1983 and 2003. He is the inventor of the ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) sensor. Bergveld's ...

studied the

MOSFET The metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, MOS-FET, or MOS FET) is a type of field-effect transistor (FET), most commonly fabricated by the controlled oxidation of silicon. It has an insulated gate, the voltage of which d ...

and realized it could be adapted into a

for chemical and biological applications. In 1970, Bergveld invented the ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET). He described the ISFET as "a special type of MOSFET with a gate at a certain distance". In the ISFET structure, the

metal gate A metal gate, in the context of a lateral metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) stack, is the gate electrode separated by an oxide from the transistor's channel – the gate material is made from a metal. In most MOS transistors since about the mid ...

of a standard MOSFET is replaced by an

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

-sensitive

membrane A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. B ...

electrolyte An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon dis ...

solution and

reference electrode A reference electrode is an electrode which has a stable and well-known electrode potential. The high stability of the electrode potential is usually reached by employing a redox system with constant (buffered or saturated) concentrations of each ...

. ChemFETs are based on a modified ISFET, a concept developed by Bergveld in the 1970s. There is some confusion as to the relationship between ChemFETs and ISFETs. Whereas an ISFET only detects ions, a ChemFET detects any chemical (including ions).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chemical Field-Effect Transistor Acid–base chemistry Biosensors Electrochemistry Electrodes Field-effect transistors Measuring instruments MOSFETs Sensors Transistor types

Construction

Applications

Practical limitations

History

See also

References