Functionalization and Characterization of Nanomaterial Gated Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensors and the Design of a Multi-Analyte Implantable Biosensing Platform

Advances in semiconductor research and complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor fabrication allow for the design and implementation of miniaturized metabolic monitoring systems, as well as advanced biosensor design. The first part of this dissertation will focus on the design and fabrication of nanomaterial (single-walled carbon nanotube and quantum dot) gated field-effect transistors configured as protein sensors. These novel device structures have been functionalized with single-stranded DNA aptamers, and have shown sensor operation towards the protein Thrombin. Such advanced transistor-based sensing schemes present considerable advantages over traditional sensing methodologies in view of its miniaturization, low cost, and facile fabrication, paving the way for the ultimate realization of a multi-analyte lab-on-chip.;The second part of this dissertation focuses on the design and fabrication of a needle-implantable glucose sensing platform which is based solely on photovoltaic powering and optical communication. By employing these powering and communication schemes, this design negates the need for bulky on-chip RF-based transmitters and batteries in an effort to attain extreme miniaturization required for needle-implantable/extractable applications. A complete single-sensor system coupled with a miniaturized amperometric glucose sensor has been demonstrated to exhibit reality of this technology. Furthermore, an optical selection scheme of multiple potentiostats for four different analytes (glucose, lactate, O 2 and CO2) as well as the optical transmission of sensor data has been designed for multi-analyte applications.;The last part of this dissertation will focus on the development of a computational model for the amperometric glucose sensors employed in the aforementioned implantable platform. This model has been applied to single-layer single-enzyme systems, as well as multi-layer (single enzyme) systems utilizing glucose flux limiting layer-by-layer assembled outer membranes. The concentration of glucose and hydrogen peroxide within the sensor geometry, the transient response and the device response time has been simulated for both systems.