Ultrasensitive pressure sensor based on gate- all-around nanowire fet

There have been limited studies addressing how the fundamental factors affect the piezoresistive sensitivity of transistors. In this work, we demonstrate pressure sensor based on gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire field-effect transistor (NWFET) sensing element. We show eight times sensitivity enhancement of NWFET within a low gate bias (0.4V). The pressure sensitivity ((ΔI_DS/I_DS)/ΔP) of 0.0045 (psi)^-1 is achieved for 3.5μm thick diaphragm. Result shows the picoampere current noise in subthreshold regime, which allows measurable output signal for the low pressure detection. Results reveal silicon channel GAA NWFET as a low bias controlled, miniaturized, and ultrasensitive sensing element for nanomechanical sensors.