Biocompatible field-effect-transistor-based biosensors have drawn attention for the development of next-generation human-friendly electronics. High-performance electronic devices must achieve low-voltage operation, long-term operational stability, and biocompatibility. Herein, we propose an electrolyte-gated thin-film transistor made of large-area solution-processed indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) semiconductors capable of directly interacting with live cells at physiological conditions. The fabricated transistors exhibit good electrical performance operating under sub-0.5 V conditions with high on-/off-current ratios (>107) and transconductance (>1.0 mS) over an extended operational lifetime. Furthermore, we verified the biocompatibility of the IGZO surface to various types of mammalian cells in terms of cell viability, proliferation, morphology, and drug responsiveness. Finally, the prolonged stable operation of electrolyte-gated transistor devices directly integrated with live cells provides the proof-of-concept for solution-processed metal oxide material-based direct cellular interfaces.
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (Grant Nos. RS-2023-00213089, NRF- 2018M3A7B4070988, NRF-2021R1A4A1022920, NRF- 2022M3C1C5A01097681, and NRF- 2021R1A2C1013015). This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (Grant Nos. RS-2022- 00154781 and 1415180859) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea). This research was also supported by the MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program (Grant No. IITP-2022-2020-0-01461) supervised by the IITP (Institute for Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation).
