Rapid fabrication of leak-free, gate-all-around ionic field-effect transistor for control of ions in nanofluidic environment

Artificial control of charged particles such as ions and molecules by external actions such as field-effect gating under nanofluidic environment is of critical technology for various promising applications such as protein control, DNA translocation, drug delivery, energy conversion, desalination, etc. In this regard, developing a facile method for fabrication of ionic field-effect transistors (iFET) over a large area may offer tremendous opportunities in fundamental research as well as innovative applications. Here, we report a rapid, cost-effective method to fabricate large-scale iFET. A simple, lithography-free two-step fabrication process which consists of sputtering and anodization was employed for fabricating large-scale iFET. A gate-all-around iFET with leak-free gate dielectric exhibited outstanding gating performance despite the large channel size. The combined gate-all-around structure with leak-free gate dielectric on a large area could yield possible breakthroughs in many areas ranging from biotechnology to energy and environmental applications.