Wide dynamic range fluid sensor based on nanowire platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10126263-B2
Application number	US-201314435592-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2013
Priority date	Oct 16, 2012
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

A device for detecting a concentration of a substance in a fluid sample includes a substrate; an insulating layer arranged on the substrate; and a plurality of individually electrically addressable semiconducting nanowires arranged on the insulating layer. Each one of the plurality of nanowires is covered by an insulating material and arranged for sensing of the substance through an electrical characteristic of the nanowire. The device further includes a sample compartment for providing the fluid sample in contact with each of the plurality of nanowires. For each of the plurality of nanowires, at least one of the cross sectional dimension, the insulator thickness and the type of insulating material is selected such that each of the nanowires has a different detection range, and such that the dynamic range of the device is higher than the dynamic range of each of the individual nanowires.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for quantitative detection of a substance in a fluid sample, said device comprising:
a substrate;
an electrically insulating layer arranged on said substrate;
a plurality of individually addressable nanowires arranged on said electrically insulating layer, each nanowire of said plurality of nanowires being covered by an individual insulating material, the plurality of nanowires being configured to detect a presence of the substance in the fluid sample through measurement of an electrical characteristic of a nanowire of the plurality of nanowires, each of said nanowire having a length, a width and a thickness;
a sample compartment for comprising said fluid sample,
wherein said sample compartment is configured to cover at least a part of each nanowire of said plurality of nanowires,
wherein each of the individual insulating material of the each nanowire is separated from each other, and
wherein the individual insulating material of each of at least two nanowires of said plurality of nanowires has a thickness that is different with respect to each other to form different detection ranges for the substance.

2. The device as according to claim 1 , wherein a combination of the different detection ranges form a substantially continuous detection range that is larger than each different detection range.

3. The device according to claim 1 , wherein each nanowire of said plurality of nanowires comprises a surface area and a nanowire volume, wherein a ratio of the surface area and the volume is different for the different nanowires of said plurality of nanowires.

4. The device according to claim 3 , wherein the thickness of the nanowires of the plurality of nanowires is substantially the same and one or more of the width and the length of each of the nanowires of said plurality of nanowires is different.

5. The device according to 1 , wherein the individual insulating material is the same for each of the nanowires of the plurality of nanowires and wherein the individual insulating material comprises a thickness that is different for each nanowire of the plurality of nanowires.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein at least one nanowire of said plurality of nanowires comprises at least one functionalization layer configured to interact with the substance.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the at least one functionalization layer comprises TiO 2 .

8. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the at least one functionalization layer consists of TiO 2 .

9. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the each one of the at least two nanowires of said plurality of nanowires comprises a functionalization layer configured to interact with the substance, wherein at least two functionalization layers are different from each other.

10. The device according to any claim 1 , wherein said sample compartment is configured to include a fluid over said plurality of nanowires.

11. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the each one of the at least two nanowires has a different sensitivity.

12. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the each one of the at least two nanowires of said plurality of nanowires has a different doping concentration of a dopant.

13. The device according to claim 1 , wherein at least one nanowire of the plurality of nanowires forms a channel of a transistor and a part of the substrate is used as a gate terminal of said transistor.

14. The device of claim 1 , comprising electrical circuitry connected to each nanowire of the plurality of said nanowires for readout of the nanowires.

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Klootwijk Johan Hendrik
• Mulder Marcel

Classifications

• H01L29/0673

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G01N27/4146 Primary

  involving nanosized elements, e.g. nanotubes, nanowires · CPC title

• G01N33/0031

  comprising two or more sensors, e.g. a sensor array · CPC title

• H10D62/121

  oriented parallel to substrates · CPC title

• G01N27/414 Primary

  Ion-sensitive or chemical field-effect transistors, i.e. ISFETS or CHEMFETS · CPC title