Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Au-gated AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) structures were functionalized in the gate region with label free 3′-thiol modified oligonucleotides. This serves as a binding layer to the AlGaN surface for hybridization of matched target Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) shows that immobilization of thiol modified DNA covalently bonded with gold on the gated region. Hybridization between probe DNA and matched or mismatched target DNA on the Au-gated HEMT was detected by electrical measurements. The HEMT drain-source current showed a clear decrease of 115 μA as this matched target DNA was introduced to the probe DNA on the surface, showing the promise of the DNA sequence detection approach for biological sensing.