Ion-Sensitive Characteristics of an Electrolyte-Solution-Gate ZnO/ZnMgO Heterojunction Field-Effect Transistor as a Biosensing Transducer

Characteristics of an ion-sensitive ZnO/ZnMgO heterojunction field-effect transistor (HFET) with an amine-modified single-crystalline O-polar ZnMgO gate electrode are discussed to develop the application to biosensing transducers. The ion-sensitivity was based on the proton transfer to/from the amino groups on the gate electrode, the amine-modification of which was performed using a silanization technique by immersing the HFET into an aminosilane based solution. Stable operation in electrolyte solution in accordance with the standard FET theory with small hysteresis and small leakage current was confirmed, and the amperometric operation revealed a high pH sensitivity of -20 µA/pH with a reproducible result. A potential application of the ion-sensitive HFET to amperometric biosensing transducers was also demonstrated by immobilizing enzyme molecules of glucose oxidase on the amine-modified gate electrode.