Ultrasensitive In1-xGaxAs/Si Heterojunction TFET with extended source for detecting breast cancer cell lines

Abstract

This article reports In1-xGaxAs/Si heterojunction with extended source TFET on SOI substrate (HJ-ESTFET) based biosensor for the accurate detection of breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, Hs578T, T47D and MDA-MB-231, and) and healthy breast cells (MCF-10A). For accurate biomolecule detection, the present device uses engraved dual nanocavity and the notable variation in the dielectric constant with the immobilization of cancerous cells within the cavities is reported. This in turn modulates the device electrostatic characteristics as reflected in surface potential, electric field, energy band diagram, carrier concentration and drain current characteristics for the several breast cancer cell lines taken into consideration. The described biosensor is simulated using SILVACO ATLAS simulation framework. For every reported breast cancer cell lines, the ION/IOFF ratio is used as significant metric to analyze the device's sensitivity. The device's potential for real-time applications is shown by performance measurements. The high sensitivity of the simulated device is of the order of 108. The development of small, scalable biosensors for wearable and portable health monitoring devices may benefit from this work.