Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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HL: Halbleiterphysik

HL 48: Symposium: Bio- and Neurotransistors

HL 48.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 12:15–12:45, TU P270

A BioFET on the basis of intact insect antennae — •M. J. Schöning^1,2, S. Schütz³, H. E. Hummel⁴, H. Lüth², and C.-D. Kohl⁵ — ¹Fachhochschule Aachen (Abteilung Jülich), Labor für Chemo- und Biosensorik — ²Forschungszentrum Jülich, ISG — ³Universität Göttingen, Fakultät für Forstwissenschaften und Waldökologie — ⁴Universität Giessen, Institut für Phytopathologie und Angewandte Zoologie — ⁵Universität Giessen, Institut für Angewandte Physik

More than one million species of insects with sometimes extraordinary sensory abilities present a tremendous potential of highly optimised chemoreceptors. To make these abilities usable for analytical tools, some interface between chemoreceptive organs of insects and microelectronic components of analytical instruments has to be established. One promising possibility is the design of biosensors on the basis of intact chemoreceptors utilising electrophysiological techniques, like electroantennography (EAG). For natural analyte concentrations the EAG responses have a rise time of 50 ms and a time constant for decay of about 200 ms. In order to circumvent, major drawbacks of conventional EAG methods such as electrical and mechanical instability, the need for pre-amplification and the limited ability for miniaturisation, we designed a direct field effect transistor (FET)-insect antenna junction, representing the first BioFET on the basis of intact insect antennae. Two different set-ups will be presented the whole-beetle BioFET and the isolated-antenna BioFET. Considering that detection limits of analytes are typically in the ppb range or even lower, a biosensor on the basis of intact chemoreceptors could serve as an analytical device with unrivalled data acquisition time.