Low gate voltage operated multi-emitter-dot H⁺ ion-sensitive gated lateral bipolar junction transistor

A low gate voltage operated multi-emitter-dot gated lateral bipolar junction transistor (BJT) ion sensor is proposed. The proposed device is composed of an arrayed gated lateral BJT, which is driven in the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)-BJT hybrid operation mode. Further, it has multiple emitter dots linked to each other in parallel to improve ionic sensitivity. Using hydrogen ionic solutions as reference solutions, we conduct experiments in which we compare the sensitivity and threshold voltage of the multi-emitter-dot gated lateral BJT with that of the single-emitter-dot gated lateral BJT. The multi-emitter-dot gated lateral BJT not only shows increased sensitivity but, more importantly, the proposed device can be operated under very low gate voltage, whereas the conventional ion-sensitive field-effect transistors cannot. This special characteristic is significant for low power devices and for function devices in which the provision of a gate voltage is difficult.