A Semiconductor-based Field-effect Platform for (Bio-)Chemical and Physical sensors: From Capacitive EIS Sensors and LAPS over ISFETs to Nano-scale Devices

The coupling of semiconductor field-effect devices (FED) together with chemical and biological recognition elements, like functional intelligent materials, biomolecules and living cells, represents an attractive platform for the creation of different (bio-)chemical sensors, multi-parameter analysis systems and bio-chips. This paper summarises recent developments and current research activities in the field of (bio-)chemically modified FEDs, scaling down from capacitive EIS (electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor) sensors and LAPS (light-addressable potentiometric sensor) to ISFETs (ion-sensitive field-effect transistor) that have been realised in our laboratory. Selected examples of application of ISFETs for the detection of physical parameters in liquids are presented, too. With the aim of future development of nano-devices for the detection of single biomolecules, the possibility of a simple preparation of different self-aligned nano-structures by using conventional photolithography and pattern-size reduction technique has been experimentally demonstrated.