Stability of polymer thin-film transistors based on poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene)

Polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs) based on poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) semiconductor are fabricated by spin-coating process and characterized. In the experiments, solution preparation, deposition and device measurements are all performed in air for large-area applications. Hysteresis effect and gate-bias stress effect are observed for the devices at room temperature. The saturation current decreases and the threshold voltage shifts toward the negative direction upon gate-bias stress, but carrier mobility hardly changes. By using quasi-static C-V analysis for MOS capacitor structure, it can be deduced that the origin of threshold-voltage shift upon negative gate-bias stress is predominantly associated with hole trapping within the SiO₂ gate dielectric near the SiO₂/MEH-PPV interface due to hot-carrier emission.     

Interactions of DNA with graphene and sensing applications of graphene field-effect transistor devices: A review

Graphene field-effect transistors (GFET) have emerged as powerful detection platforms enabled by the advent of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) production of the unique atomically thin 2D material on a large scale. DNA aptamers, short target-specific oligonucleotides, are excellent sensor moieties for GFETs due to their strong affinity to graphene, relatively short chain-length, selectivity, and a high degree of analyte variability. However, the interaction between DNA and graphene is not fully understood, leading to questions about the structure of surface-bound DNA, including the morphology of DNA nanostructures and the nature of the electronic response seen from analyte binding. This review critically evaluates recent insights into the nature of the DNA graphene interaction and its affect on sensor viability for DNA, small molecules, and proteins with respect to previously established sensing methods. We first discuss the sorption of DNA to graphene to introduce the interactions and forces acting in DNA based GFET devices and how these forces can potentially affect the performance of increasingly popular DNA aptamers and even future DNA nanostructures as sensor substrates. Next, we discuss the novel use of GFETs to detect DNA and the underlying electronic phenomena that are typically used as benchmarks for characterizing the analyte response of these devices. Finally, we address the use of DNA aptamers to increase the selectivity of GFET sensors for small molecules and proteins and compare them with other, state of the art, detection methods.