Interest in biosensors based on field-effect transistors (FETs), where an electrically operated gate controls the flow of charge through a semiconducting channel, is driven by the prospect of integrating biodetection capabilities into existing semiconductor technology. In a number of proposed FET biosensors, surface interactions with biomolecules in solution affect the operation of the gate or the channel. However, these devices often have limited sensitivity. We show here that a FET biosensor with a vertical gap is sensitive to the specific binding of streptavidin to biotin. The binding of the streptavidin changes the dielectric constant (and capacitance) of the gate, resulting in a large shift in the threshold voltage for operating the FET. The vertical gap is fabricated using simple thin-film deposition and wet-etching techniques. This may be an advantage over planar nanogap FETs, which require lithographic processing. We believe that the dielectric-modulated FET (DMFET) provides a useful approach towards biomolecular detection that could be extended to a number of other systems.

A photolithography-based method capable of size reduction to produce sub-10-nm Si nanowire arrays on a wafer scale is described. By conformally depositing a material (silicon oxide or silicon) that has a different etching property over a lithographically defined sacrificial sidewall and selectively removing the sacrificial material, the sidewall material is preserved and can serve as nanopattern mask for further processing. The resolution of this method is not limited by photolithography but by the thickness of the material deposited. The application of size reduction nano-patterning method can range from the fabrication of biosensors to model catalyst systems.

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To amortize cost, cloud vendors providing DNN acceleration as a service to end-users employ consolidation and virtualization to share the underlying resources among multiple DNN service requests. This paper makes a case for a "preemptible" neural processing unit (NPU) and a "predictive" multitask scheduler to meet the latency demands of high-priority inference while maintaining high throughput. We evaluate both the mechanisms that enable NPUs to be preemptible and the policies that utilize them to meet scheduling objectives. We show that preemptive NPU multi-tasking can achieve an average 7.8×, 1.4×, and 4.8× improvement in latency, throughput, and SLA satisfaction, respectively.

N-channel double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) FinFETs with gate and fin dimensions as small as 30 nm have been fabricated using a new, simplified process. Short channel effects are effectively suppressed when the Si fin width is less than two-thirds of the gate length. Drive current for typical devices is found to be above 500 A m (or 1mA m, depending on the definition of the width of the double-gate device) for V g V t = V d = 1 V. The electrical gate oxide thickness in these devices is 21A, determined from the first FinFET capacitance-versus-voltage characteristics obtained to date. These results indicate that the FinFET is a promising structure for the future manufacturing of integrated circuits with sub-60-nm feature size, and that double-gate MOSFETs can meet international technology roadmap for semiconductors performance specifications without aggressive scaling of the gate-oxide thickness.

A silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (SiNW FET) with local side-gates and Pd surface decoration is demonstrated for hydrogen (H2) detection. The SiNW FETs are fabricated by top-down method and functionalized with palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) through electron beam evaporation for H2 detection. The drain current of the PdNP-decorated device reversibly responds to H2 at different concentrations. The local side-gates allow individual addressing of each sensor and enhance the sensitivity by adjusting the working region to the subthreshold regime. A control experiment using a non-functionalized device verifies that the hydrogen-sensitivity is originated from the PdNPs functionalized on the SiNW surface.

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