Vol. 91, Issue 4, April 2008, pp.24-30

Cantilever Embedded MOSFET Characteristics for Detection of Photosystem I Reaction Centers

Sazia A. Eliza¹, Ida Lee², Syed K. Islam¹, and Elias Greenbaum²

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville,

TN 37996-2100, USA

²Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6194, USA

E-mail: seliza@utk.edu, leei@ornl.gov

Received: 11 December 2007   /Accepted: 21 April 2008   /Published: 30 April 2008

Abstract: This paper presents a micro sensor for detection and characterization of biomolecular photodiodes - Photosystem I (PS I) reaction centers. In oxygenic plants, photons are captured with high quantum efficiency by two specialized reaction centers, Photosystems I and II (PS I and PS II). Photon capture triggers rapid charge separation and the conversion of light energy into an electric voltage across the nanometer-scale (~6 nm) reaction centers.  In this work, MOSFET embedded micro cantilevers have been used to detect the energy harvesting biomolecules. The bending of cantilevers due to immobilization of reaction centers induces stress on MOSFET gate and hence modulates the MOSFET current voltage characteristics. Again, the optoelectrical property of PS I alter the electrostatic properties of the MOS gate, which reflects in the transport characteristics of the transistor.

Keywords: Cantilever embedded MOS, Photosystem I, biomolecular, photodiode

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