G-FET

Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz, University of Manchester and Japan's International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics and National Institute for Materials Science have used a scanning tunnelling microscope to create and probe single and coupled electrostatically defined graphene quantum dots, to investigate the magnetic-field responses of artificial relativistic nanostructures.

Trapped electrons traveling in circular loops at extreme speeds inside graphene quantum dots are highly sensitive to external magnetic fields and could be used as novel magnetic field sensors with unique capabilities. Although graphene electrons do not move at the speed of light, they exhibit the same energy-momentum relationship as photons and can be described as "ultra-relativistic." When these electrons are confined in a quantum dot, they travel at high velocity in circular loops around the edge of the dot.

Researchers from Graphenea, Ikerbasque, BCMaterials, Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE) of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU, University of Trieste and Universidade da Coruña recently reported a graphene field effect transistors (GFET) array biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, using the human membrane protein involved in the virus internalisation: angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

By finely controlling the graphene functionalization, by tuning the Debye length, and by deeply characterizing the ACE2-spike protein interactions, the team managed to detect the target protein with an extremely low limit of detection (2.94 aM).

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Toshiba Corporation recently demonstrated how graphene-based olfactory sensors could detect odor molecules depending on the design of peptide sequences. They showed that graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) functionalized with designable peptides could be utilized to develop electronic devices that imitate olfactory receptors and then emulate the sense of smell by selectively detecting odor molecules.

Olfactory sensing is an integral part of many industries like food, cosmetics, healthcare, and environmental monitoring. Currently, most commonly utilized methods for detecting and evaluating odor molecules is called gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). While GC–MS is effective, it has certain limitations like confined sensitivity and heavy setup. As a result, researchers are in the search of user-friendly and highly sensitive alternatives.

In June 2022, Graphenea launched its latest product out of its Graphene Foundry, the mGFET, fully-packaged mini graphene-based field effect transistors.

Graphenea now updates that the market demand for these products has been excellent, and it has run out of stock. The company is now working to produce more mGFET devices and restock.

The mGFETs are Graphenea's highest value-chain products, which are manufactured and packaged in chip carriers, and can be used together with the Graphenea Card for seamless sensor development (which was released earlier in 2022, and has also seen very good reception in the industry).

Graphenea launched two new products out of its Graphene Foundry, which they call mGFET or miniGFET. These are Graphenea's highest value-chain products, which are manufactured and packaged in chip carriers, and can be used together with the freshly released Graphenea Card for seamless sensor development.

The mGFET is available from $99, and as it is a fully-package device, it is ready to be integrated into standard electronics. Order volume can range from a few devices for early prototyping, to JEDEC trays with hundreds of devices which are compatible with automated pick & place routines.

This is a sponsored post by Graphenea

Graphenea has announced that, following the release of its GFET S30, it has developed a High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) manufacturing process to create Field-Effect Transistor (FET) structures on graphene, or GFETs. This process is now available under the dedicated GFAB service, starting February 2022.

HKMG structures triggered a revolution in Si electronics when they were introduced during the early 2000’s, creating an alternative to SiO2 gate dielectrics that paved the way for further scaling. HKMG technology indeed enabled Moore’s law to continue, providing increased capacitance and lower current leakage than the previously state-of-the-art SiO2 tech. The most common FET architecture to modulate the conductance in graphene uses a SiO2 gate dielectric grown on top of a heavily doped Si substrate. Whereas this structure is easy to implement, it suffers from excessive current leakage when the SiO2 layer is thinned down, often rendering devices unusable. Moreover, the substrate acts as a global backgate, forbidding manipulation of individual GFET devices, which is essential for many applications.

Researchers from Boston College, Boston University, and Giner Labs have designed a small graphene-based multiplexed bio-sensor that detects opioid byproducts in wastewater.

The novel device uses graphene-based field effect transistors to detect four different synthetic and natural opioids at once, while shielding them from wastewater’s harsh elements. When a specific opioid metabolite attaches to a molecular probe on the graphene, it changes the electrical charge on the graphene. These signals are easily read electronically for each probe attached to the device.

This is a sponsored post by Graphenea

Graphenea has obtained ISO 13485 certification for manufacturing medical device components. The certification relates to the GFET product line and the Graphene Foundry service.

The ISO standard is an important certification needed for the commercialization of medical applications of graphene, in particular non-implantable biosensors. Graphenea obtained certification for the entire process chain, including raw materials, design, development, manufacture and sale. The certificate also applies to facilities, quality management, tracing, and data analysis. The ISO certificate was issued after an independent audit by SGS.

Korean researchers have developed a graphene-based field-effect transistor-based biosensor that detects SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swabs from patients with COVID-19, in less than one minute.

Currently, most diagnostic tests for COVID-19 rely on a technique called real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which amplifies SARS-CoV-2 RNA from patient swabs so that tiny amounts of the virus can be detected. However, the method takes at least 3 hours, including a step to prepare the viral RNA for analysis. Edmond Changkyun Park, Seung Il Kim and colleagues wanted to develop a faster diagnostic test that could analyze patient samples directly from a tube of buffer containing the swabs, without any sample preparation steps.

BioMed X has announced the completion of its first research collaboration project with Roche Diagnostics in the field of nanomaterial-based biosensors for near patient testing. BioMed X successfully achieved the proof of principle for a new sensor platform allowing the analysis of several different parameters from blood samples with one single device.

The project was initiated in 2015 as a call for application using BioMed X’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform for project proposals. As a result of an international innovation challenge, a team of early-career researchers from five different countries worked in Germany on the design of a field effect transistor-based multimodal sensing platform for proteins, blood gases and electrolytes, metabolites and enzymes with a single-use disposable material for point-of-care diagnostics.