College of Arts & Sciences

Justin Yuen

College of Nursing & Health Professions Health Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Haifeng

Ji Chemistry

Ketao Chen Co-Mentor

Wire FET Device Coated with P3HT

The application of a field effect transistor (FET) for the use of a chemical or a biological sensor is on the rise. An FET works by having current flowing through three electrodes: the source, drain and gate. More specifically, what makes an FET unique is that when there is voltage applied to the gate, it can manipulate the voltage flowing from the source to the drain by means of a semiconductor channel. In fields such as healthcare, the potential use of an FET device could become an innovative technology to areas such as drug delivery—by getting drugs to specific organic molecules in a very controlled manner. Likewise, FETs could have the same application in the discipline of chemistry by using it as a platform for detecting ammonia and other various compounds. In this study, a new design for an FET was made. This design consists of an insulated copper wire, gold electrode, and P3HT (3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) polymer. The device that was developed is around 50 µm in width, translating to its ability to be placed in very small places. After developing this new FET device and when tested, the curves showed characteristics of an FET effect when applying gate voltage.