FMRG: Bio: Manufacturing Ultra-High-Density DNA-Enabled Nanoelectronics Systems

The ability to design, manufacture, and integrate semiconductor-based devices led to the Information Technology revolution. Key to this advance was the decrease in the size of transistors from the micron-scale to the nanometer-scale. However, physical limitations within the manufacturing process are now limiting further decreases in size and hence the density of electronic devices.

Alternatively, it has long been imagined that molecular-scale components could play a role in electronic systems as they naturally reside at nanometer-scales and can be synthesized to perform an array of interesting functions from rectification and amplification to sensing and light emission. However, robust, high-yield integration of nanoscale components such as graphene nanoribbons, carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, or single-molecules with conventional electronic circuits has proven to be challenging.

Toward this end, this project aims to catalyze the long-term expansion of manufacturable DNA-based electronics by leveraging advances in DNA nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and nanoscale electronics. Toward this vision, this project focuses on designing and manufacturing a plug-and-play DNA nano-cartridge from the bottom-up that can be integrated with conventional, top-down electronic circuits to create ultra-high density systems.

The nano-cartridge platform will enable a myriad of potential applications, and as an initial target the project will focus on manufacturing a novel class of inexpensive electronic biosensors capable of rapid, simultaneous detection of hundreds of unique biomolecules (e.g., DNA or RNA). Immediate applications for these sensors range from monitoring the supply chain in the agricultural industry to pathogen detection and disease tracking.

In addition, this project, which includes two HSIs, aims to help prepare a workforce various backgrounds (K-12, community colleges, four-year colleges and research universities) to work in this nascent field. The research goals and workforce development plan are integrated with an outreach effort aimed at expanding the enrollment of a broad range of groups in STEM fields, providing teacher training and research experiences to undergraduate students, and introducing K-12 students to cutting-edge science and engineering.

This project presents an interdisciplinary approach to developing a foundation for manufacturing ultra-high density, carbon-based electronics. To enable this capability, the research team will work to catalyze a manufacturing pipeline that leverages DNA nanotechnology to address critical roadblocks to the wide-spread use of these systems. To advance this pipeline, this project focuses on developing: (i) scalable, high-purity methods for obtaining chiral-specific carbon nanotubes, self-aligned single-molecule junctions, and hierarchically assembled hybrid DNA nanostructures; (ii) reliable methodologies for integrating bottom-up and top-down architectures utilizing a combination of field-driven, directed-assembly and microarray liquid dispensing processes; (iii) computer aided design (CAD) and design for manufacturing (DFM) tools for designing and modeling the electronic properties of DNA nanostructures, carbon nanotubes, their interconnects, and their assembly processes; and (iv) a framework that will allow a workforce to be trained with a sufficient background in synthetic biology, DNA nanotechnology, nanoscale electronics, and manufacturing to help move this field from a leading-edge research platform to a foundational manufacturing platform in the United States.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.