Nanowires carved from silicon could make mass production feasible

[gribbon]

Sensitive biological detectors made from silicon, using simple machining techniques and standard tools, have been made at Yale University by Mark Reed and his colleagues. (Look at Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Nanotech Biological Sensors Become Easier to Build -- Nanowires carved from silicon detect small traces of protein and might be amenable to mass production)

 

30-nanometer-wide wires were coated in antibodies or other biological molecules able of latching onto certain proteins. These receptors plucked their matching proteins from a solution washed over the sensor, which detected the change because the electric charges on the amassed proteins easily disrupted the current flowing through the wires.

 

A new, easier-to-manufacture nano-sensor consists of slender nano-wires [blue strips] coated in antibodies or other receptors. (Picture doesn't seem to work)

 

This has been likened to the way that stepping on a flimsy garden hose (but not a tough fire hose) would block its flow.

 

Most of the sites I looked at claimed that this nanowire sensor compares to others, and will be able to detect as few as 30,000 proteins in a cubic millimetre of fluid in seconds, and will recognise immune cells by the acid they emit when they bind to antibodies.

 

My understanding is that this was made by taking a wafer of insulating material topped with a thin layer of silicon, followed by the placement of a stencil on the wafer. The pouring of a solvent on top that etches away the exposed silicon follows this.

 

It is my understanding that the use of a slower acting solvent and the removal of the stencil to allow the etching to continue is what allowed for smoother wires to form, but are there any more efficient ways of growing nano-wires than this method? Furthermore, have detectors like this been made previously, or is the use of wires, as opposed to micro detectors uncommon?

[InfiniteNow]

Gribbon,

 

Please post the link from where you copy/pasted the above. Credit where credit is due and all... Thanks.

[gribbon]

Gribbon,

 

Please post the link from where you copy/pasted the above. Credit where credit is due and all... Thanks.

 

I honestly did not copy and paste it....if you look on the web, there are other articles written about the same topic, but I wrote it, and nothing has been plagiarised....