Recent Advances in Field Effect Transistor Biosensors: Designing Strategies and Applications for Sensitive Assay

Abstract

In comparison with traditional clinical diagnosis methods, field–effect transistor (FET)–based biosensors have the advantages of fast response, easy miniaturization and integration for high–throughput screening, which demonstrates their great technical potential in the biomarker detection platform. This mini review mainly summarizes recent advances in FET biosensors. Firstly, the review gives an overview of the design strategies of biosensors for sensitive assay, including the structures of devices, functionalization methods and semiconductor materials used. Having established this background, the review then focuses on the following aspects: immunoassay based on a single biosensor for disease diagnosis; the efficient integration of FET biosensors into a large–area array, where multiplexing provides valuable insights for high–throughput testing options; and the integration of FET biosensors into microfluidics, which contributes to the rapid development of lab–on–chip (LOC) sensing platforms and the integration of biosensors with other types of sensors for multifunctional applications. Finally, we summarize the long–term prospects for the commercialization of FET sensing systems.

Keywords

• field effect transistor
• biosensors
• microfluidics
• multiplexing
• integration