Seminar by Nandhini Swaminathan 3/11/15

You are invited to attend a lecture

By

 Nandhini Swaminathan

Ph.D. student of Professor Yossi Rosenwaks

Electrical Engineering, Physical Electronics Department

Tel Aviv University

Electrostatically-formed Nanowire Chemical Sensor

Abstract

The Electrostatically-formed Nanowire (EFN) field effect transistor, introduced in 2013, is an accumulation-type transistor with three independent gates: a back gate and two additional lateral junction gates located on either side of the conducting channel. The nanoscale channel is induced and controlled by depletion regions formed around it by the three surrounding gates. The nanowire in the EFN is not physically fabricated but obtained electrostatically in the bulk by appropriate biasing of the gates.

In this talk, we present the EFN as a unique and highly efficient chemical gas sensing platform. We demonstrate the EFN as a sensor for detecting various volatile organic compounds. The proposed sensing mechanism is the field effect induced by the analyte molecules adsorbed on the SiO₂ that forms the molecular gate of the sensor. The sensor performance is highly dependent on the size and shape of the conducting channel, which can be controlled electrostatically. We show that this unique sensor attribute leads to highly desirable sensor features such as tunable sensitivity, dynamic range enhancement for a particular analyte and selectivity. The EFN sensor has the potential for incorporating the enormous advantages of nanotechnology while overcoming some of the disadvantages of nanomaterials based sensors. 

Tuesday, 3 November 2015, at 11:00

Room 206, Wolfson Mechanical Engineering Building