Aluminium nitride - graphene dual-mode sensors for cancer cell detection

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We propose to develop a technology for wafer scale device fabrication based on thin film heterostructures composed of graphene and aluminium nitride (AlN), which were recently demonstrated by our team for the first time. As a new orthogonal approach for biosensors, AlN-graphene heterostructures should enable simultaneous mass and charge detection of immobilized cellular and molecular species within one integrated device. This new capability is expected to lead to a dramatic reduction of false positives and false negatives in cancer cell detection based on antigen-antibody bond-mediated cell capturing. : As a bioactive sensor surface, bio-functionalized graphene enables charge detection via the electric field effect in graphene. Simultaneously, the graphene biointerface layer will be employed as an electrode - in combination with other graphene layer(s) embedded inside the heterostructure - to enable a fully integrated piezoelectric excitation and readout of mechanical deformations or oscillations of a free-standing AlN structure. Cell capture-induced alterations of the deformation or mechanical resonance should allow mass detection of the immobilized species. This orthogonal sensing capability of fully integrated devices will be tested and benchmarked for detection of cancer cells in blood or other body fluids.