Boron δ-doped (111) diamond solution gate field effect transistors

Abstract

A solution gate field effect transistor (SGFET) using an oxidised boron δ-doped channel on (111) diamond is presented for the first time. Employing an optimised plasma chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) recipe to deposit δ-layers, SGFETs show improved current-voltage (I-V) characteristics in comparison to previous similar devices fabricated on (100) and polycrystalline diamond, where the device is shown to operate in the enhancement mode of operation, achieving channel pinch-off and drain-source current saturation within the electrochemical window of diamond. A maximum gain and transconductance of 3 and 200μS/mm are extracted, showing comparable figures of merit to hydrogen-based SGFET. The oxidised device shows a site-binding model pH sensitivity of 36 mV/pH, displaying fast temporal responses. Considering the biocompatibility of diamond towards cells, the device's highly mutable transistor characteristics, pH sensitivity and stability against anodic oxidation common to hydrogen terminated diamond SGFET, oxidised boron δ-doped diamond SGFETs show promise for the recording of action potentials from electrogenic cells.