Breast Cancer Detection Using a Heterostructure Dopingless Tunnel FET Biosensor

A heterostructure dopingless single-gate tunnel field-effect transistor (HS-DLSGT) is proposed for the electrical detection of several malignant breast cells (T47D, Hs578T, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7). In addition to offering a higher drive current than a conventional TFET, SiGe in the dopingless TFET’s source solves issues like random dopant oscillations and a constrained thermal budget. The breast cells become immobilized due to an etched nanocavity underneath the source metal. Exposure to the MCF-10A standard cell and four tumorigenic cells will significantly alter the biosensor’s dielectric properties. Several analog metrics are examined when exposed to cancerous breast cells, including energy band diagram, subthreshold swing (SS), transconductance (g m ), on current (I on ), current ratio (I on /I off ), and electric field. This study estimates sensitivity by comparing the results from malignant cells with non-malignant cells and considers different critical analog and RF parameters such as transconductance, drain current, current ratio, parasitic capacitance, cut-off frequency (f t ), and maximum frequency (f m ) for sensitivity analysis. When exposed to T47D cells, the suggested sensor exhibits a much higher sensitivity in terms of peak drain current (7.74 × 10 7 ), transconductance (1.06 × 10 8 ), and I on /I off (9.89 × 10 4 ). An in-depth study was also conducted on how temperature and drain bias variation affect the sensitivity performance.