Making small sense

Scientists at Southampton University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) are to develop low-power silicon sensors for biosensing and environmental monitoring applications.

The researchers claim that not only will the new sensors be the smallest on the market, they will have extreme sensitivity and very low power consumption. This will be achieved by integrating single-electron transistors (SETs) and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) onto a single device.

‘Power consumption is a big issue at the moment as, today, devices use current whether they are in the on or off state,’ said ECS's Prof Hiroshi Mizuta, who is involved with many other European research groups as part of a three-year European FP7-funded NEMSIC (Nano-Electro-Mechanical-System-Integrated-Circuits) project to build the new devices. ‘But the single-electron transistor combined with the NEM device technology will reduce power consumption whatever state the device is in.’

Prof Mizuta and his team will develop the single-electron transistor with a unique suspended silicon nanobridge that will work as an extremely sensitive molecular detector. 'This is the first time that anyone has combined these two nanotechnologies to develop a smart sensor,’ he added.