Characterization of ZnO Thin Film as Piezoelectric for Biosensor Applications

Biosensor is an analytical device that consists of immobilized biological sensitive materials. When these materials are in contact with certain transducers, the sensor is able to convert biological signal into electrical signal, hence allowing for certain measurement to be conducted. These sensors have the capability to detect certain human traits such as DNA, tissues, enzyme, antibody and antigen. To increase the biosensor performance especially the interaction between the sensor and biological elements, high uniformity and good optical transmittance sensors are strongly important. Therefore, this paper will presents early characterization of biosensors using Zinc Oxide (ZnO) piezoelectric thin film deposited as sensing layer on Silicon substrate. We investigated the thin film surface morphology and optical characterization using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. We found that the surface roughness of the thin film varied from 1.1 nm to 4.5 nm and the grain size increased with the increase of annealing temperature thus provide high surface uniformity that will enhance the sensitivity and specificity of the sensor.