Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Nanowire-Base Sensing Systems from Integrating Flow-Guided Assembly and Synthesis

由金属、半导体或导电聚合物制成的纳米线在下一代传感器和其他电子系统中具有很大的潜力。与平面结相比，纳米结可以有效地调节载流子的积累或耗尽，并将灵敏度提高到单分子水平。然而，基于纳米线的感测系统的大规模制造受到以下因素的阻碍：（1）缺乏将纳米线引导到期望位置的低成本、可靠且有效的方式;（2）由纳米线的随机堆叠或聚集体引起的大测量噪声。本计画旨在发展一种新的可量测奈米制程，以生产排列良好且图案化的奈米线电子系统。DNA组装将首先被引导到所需的位置，以创建定义明确的纳米结构。它们的负复制品，纳米通道，然后将作为牺牲模板，通过化学或电化学沉积产生高度有序的纳米线。通过这种方式，可以在很大程度上消除大多数模板合成方法中存在的单个纳米线分离和对齐的困难。还避免了生物模板合成中常见的结构缺陷。本项目将制作金属和导电聚合物纳米线场发射晶体管（nanoFET）和纳米结热电堆（nanoTPs），并测试其用于DNA和蛋白质检测。通过这种新方法，可以以可靠和高效的方式高通量地完成纳米线晶格的合成、对准和图案化。它的成功可能会彻底改变目前基于MEMS的传感系统制造。所生产的传感器可广泛应用于临床诊断、环境监测、安全筛查和生物战防御。在研究活动的同时，该项目还将为工程专业学生提供跨学科的机会，以获得材料、生物学和多个工程学科的实践研究经验。将通过全球化的教育工具和渠道，以成本效益高的方式传播相关的教育材料和资源，使各级学生，特别是弱势群体的学生受益。预计这些努力将有助于加强美国科学和工程劳动力的数量，质量和多样性。

Nanowires, made of metal, semiconductor, or conductive polymer, exhibit promising potentials in the next generation sensors and other electronic systems. Compared to their planar counterparts, nanoscale junctions can efficiently regulate the accumulation or depletion of charge carriers and significantly increase the sensitivity up to single molecule level. However, large scale manufacturing of nanowire-based sensing systems is impeded by: (1) the lack of a low-cost, reliable, and efficient way to direct nanowires to desired locations; (2) the large measuring noise resulting from the random stacking or aggregates of nanowires. This project is to develop a new scalable nanomanufacturing process in the production of well aligned and patterned nanowire electronic systems. DNA assemblies will first be guided to desired locations to create well-defined nanoarchitecture. Their negative replica, nanochannels, will then serve as the sacrificial templates to produce highly ordered nanowires through chemical or electrochemical deposition. In this way, the difficulties for individual nanowire isolation and alignment existing in most template synthesis approaches could be largely eliminated. The structural defects commonly seen in biological template synthesis are also avoided. In this project, metallic and conductive polymer nanowire field emission transistors (nanoFETs) and nanojunction thermopiles (nanoTPs) will be fabricated and tested for DNA and protein detection.With this new approach, the synthesis, alignment, and patterning of nanowire lattice can be done in a reliable and efficient manner and with high throughput. Its success may revolutionize current nanowire-based sensing system manufacturing. The produced sensors can be broadly used in clinical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, security screening, and biowarfare defense. Accompanied by its research activities, this project will also offer interdisciplinary opportunities for engineering students to gain hands-on research experiences in materials, biology, and multiple engineering disciplines. Relevant education materials and resources will be cost-effectively disseminated by globalized educational tools and pipelines to benefit all-level students, particularly those from disadvantaged groups. These efforts are expected to help strengthen the quantity, quality and diversity of the US science and engineering workforce.