250 Semiconductor Device-Based Sensors for Gas, Chemical, and Biomedical Applications
© 2011 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Calculations conrmed the measurements, showing that the sensitivity of the nanowire sensors
depended strongly on the width of the wires. A linear relationship between the NW sensitivity to
DNA attachment and the surface-to-volume ratio (2 × height + width)/(width × height)) was cal-
culated from the data for nanowire widths between 800 and 100 nm. A nonlinear enhancement
appeared for a small wire width of 50 nm. The improved sensitivity obtained from the simulations,
with a change for a 50-nm-wide wire 20 times greater than the change for one 200-nm-wide wire,
corresponded to the nonlinear decrease in the conductance ...