A comparative study of photocurable sensing membrane for Potassium ChemFET sensor

The availability of in-house microelectronic fabrication technology has given an opportunity for the development of chemical sensor based on field effect transistor (FET). Chemical sensing material deposited on the FET device is developed to explore the function as chemically sensitive field effect transistor (ChemFET) for the detection of specific analyte for agriculture and aquaculture applications. In this work, photocurable method was used to develop sensing membrane for Potassium ChemFET (K ChemFET) sensor. Urethane- and Acrylate-based host matrix polymer was selected for a comparative study as a sensing membrane for potassium ion detection. The performance of the sensor was characterized according to its sensitivity and selectivity. Performance test for K ChemFET sensor using both membrane types showed a comparable result with commercial K sensor with sensitivity of near Nernstian value and good linearity (> 0.99) in the range of 10−4 to 10−1 M calibration solution. Selectivity test demonstrated that K Acrylate-based ChemFET with one fold higher than K Urethane-based ChemFET towards Na+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ interfering ions.