Membrane transistor with giant lipid vesicle touching a silicon chip

Lipid bilayers on silicon may become the matrix of future bioelectronic devices if the junction is sufficiently insulating. We touched the open gate of a field-effect transistor with a preformed giant lipid vesicle and bound the membrane by means of polyelectrolyte interaction. The sheet resistance along the junction was 100 GΩ and the membrane resistance was above 100 GΩ at a contact area of 1000 μm². The bilayer was fluid and smoothly followed the surface profile of the chip. The compound lipid–silicon structure is suitable to couple semiconductor and electroactive proteins. Received: 12 August 1999 / Accepted: 16 August 1999 / Published online: 6 October 1999