Nanostructured Si-nanowire microarrays for enhanced-performance bio-analytics

We demonstrate the fabrication of a novel platform based on Si nanowire arrays integrated with a programmable DNA-directed homogeneous-phase analyte-capture strategy for robust detection of bio-analytes. The nanofabrication process used, based on a combination of glancing-angle-deposition and metal-assisted-catalytic-etching, is capable of producing thousands of testing sites per chip, and the sites can be fabricated over entire wafers, with precise control of size and positioning, using conventional microelectronics technology. The analyte-capture strategy used eliminates the well-known interference of the heterogeneous-phase (substrate) with the capturing of analytes. We examine the effects of the nanoscale features of the substrates (nanowire porosity and clumping) on the coupling efficiency of analytes and show that the fabricated microarrays are robust, have high efficiency and capacity, and provide significantly enhanced signal-to-noise ratio detection.