Impact of thermal oxidation, surface chemistry and porous silicon morphology for sensing applications

An ideal diagnostic device should be inexpensive, easy-to-use, rapid and reliable. Nanostructured porous silicon (PSi) satisfies these criterions including label-free optical detection and high throughput detection. Pore morphology (size, porosity) must be tailored for each specific application, and for immunosensing applications PSi morphology has been optimized for maximal pore infiltration of larger proteins as immuno gamma globlulin (IgG). Sensor degradation by high salt concentration induces a baseline drift. Different thermal oxidation procedures have been studied in order to obtain a stable sensor in the 3 hour incubation period of the immunoassay with negligible drift