Nanotechnology approaches to self-organized bio-molecular devices

In this paper we briefly describe new strategies to exploit self-assembled solid-state biomolecular materials as active elements of electronic devices. Two basically different approaches are proposed: a top-down approach, where biomolecular semiconductors consisting of DNA basis are self-organized and interconnected by planar metallic nanopatterns, and a bottom-up approach, where single or ordered matalloproteins are immobilized in a nanocircuit realizing a hybrid covalently bound biologic–inorganic system. The transport characteristics of different devices such as diodes, photodetectors and metal–semiconductor–metal structures will be described.