Career: Silicon-Based Nano Structures and Bio-Sensors for the Nano-BioTechnology Era

Purdue Research Foundation, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

As the construction of artificial computational systems continues to become insurmountably difficult, more and more engineers and scientists are turning towards nature for answers. The time is ripe to begin to better understand biological systems that are self-assembled, sense and relay information, and perform complex computational tasks. Further advances in this area require interdisciplinary research integrating nano-electronic engineering and biotechnology to develop functional devices and systems (i.e. nano-biosystems). This proposal details plans for developing semiconductor-based approaches to realize novel nano-biostructures for sensing applications at the molecular level. These sensing devices will be needed as future hybrid bio-systems start to become closer to reality. Silicon Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) will be used in the development of the emerging nano-biotechnology area since MEMS techniques can provide ways to interface the electronic world to the organic or biological world. The proposed research and education components will be carried out within the context of two application domains: (i) Fabrication of silicon-based functionalized scanning probe microscopy cantilevers and sensors for single molecule electronic and force detection, and (ii) Silicon-based single molecule counter/sensor devices for applications such as single molecule sensing and DNA/RNA sequencing. The broad research and educational impact of the work will be a variety of ideas and projects that will contribute to applications such as nano-scale computational systems, functional imaging, DNA and protein sequencing, and development of bio-electronic interface devices, all at the molecular level. Furthermore, the grand challenge of education of future researchers and academicians in the area of nano-biotechnology, which is being faced by the microelectronics and biomedical engineering departments, will also be discussed. The proposal details specific courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and discusses related activities that will help train students and integrate research and education in the proposed directions of interest.