Fabrication and characterization of field effect reconfigurable nanofluidic ionic diodes: Towards digitally-programmed manipulation of biomolecules

Weihua Guan, Rong Fan, Mark A. Reed

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Analogous to a solid-state semiconductor diode for regulating the flow of electrons/holes to one preferential direction, nanofluidic diodes are being developed to achieve the rectified ionic transport. Such rectification effect is of great importance due to its relevance to biological ion channels. Moreover, ionic diodes, together with ionic transistors represent the key building blocks for ionic circuits, mimicking voltage-gated ion channels in a variety of biological systems. Several nanofluidic platforms based on nanopores and nanochannels were reported to produce ionic current rectification. Nevertheless, it has not been possible to change the predefined rectifying properties obtained by these approaches once the devices are made. We here report a field effect reconfigurable ionic diode (FERD) by asymmetrically modulating the cation/anion ratios along the nanochannel. A key feature of our device 1is that it allows the post-fabrication reconfiguration of the diode functions, such as the forward/reverse directions as well as the rectification degrees. These results may lead to the creation of reconfigurable ionic circuits, an ionic counterpart of the electronic field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication70th Device Research Conference, DRC 2012 - Conference Digest
Pages277-278
Number of pages2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 5 2012
Event70th Device Research Conference, DRC 2012 - University Park, PA, United States
Duration: Jun 18 2012Jun 20 2012

Publication series

NameDevice Research Conference - Conference Digest, DRC
ISSN (Print)1548-3770

Other

Other70th Device Research Conference, DRC 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityUniversity Park, PA
Period6/18/126/20/12

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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