Ion bipolar junction transistors

Klas Tybrandt, Karin C. Larsson, Agneta Richter-Dahlfors, and Magnus Berggren
PNAS published ahead of print May 17, 2010 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0913911107

  1. Edited by Howard Reiss, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, and approved April 15, 2010 (received for review December 2, 2009)

Abstract

Dynamic control of chemical microenvironments is essential for continued development in numerous fields of life sciences. Such control could be achieved with active chemical circuits for delivery of ions and biomolecules. As the basis for such circuitry, we report a solid-state ion bipolar junction transistor (IBJT) based on conducting polymers and thin films of anion- and cation-selective membranes. The IBJT is the ionic analogue to the conventional semiconductor BJT and is manufactured using standard microfabrication techniques. Transistor characteristics along with a model describing the principle of operation, in which an anionic base current amplifies a cationic collector current, are presented. By employing the IBJT as a bioelectronic circuit element for delivery of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, its efficacy in modulating neuronal cell signaling is demonstrated.

Footnotes

  • 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: magbe{at}itn.liu.se.

  • Author contributions: K.T., K.C.L., A.R.-D., and M.B. designed research; K.T. and K.C.L. performed research; K.T. and K.C.L. analyzed data; and K.T., K.C.L., A.R.-D., and M.B. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.0913911107/-/DCSupplemental.

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    Ion bipolar junction transistors
    Klas Tybrandt, Karin C. Larsson, Agneta Richter-Dahlfors, Magnus Berggren
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2010, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913911107
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