Comparison of ZnO and Ti-doped ZnO sensing membrane applied in electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor structure

In this paper, we demonstrate electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor devices for biochemical sensing applications prepared from ZnO and Ti-doped ZnO sensing membranes deposited on Si substrates by radio frequency sputtering. The structural, morphological, and compositional features of these deposited films with multitemperature annealing were studied using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. Sensitivity, linearity, hysteresis, and drift rate were measured to determine the sensing and reliability performance of all fabricated devices. Compared to the ZnO electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS), the Ti-doped ZnO EIS sensor annealed at 700 °C exhibits a higher sensitivity of 57.56 mV/pH, lower hysteresis of 2.79 mV, and lower drift rate of 0.29 mV/h. For Ti-doped ZnO, sensitivities of 3.62 mV/mM and 6.42 mV/mM were obtained for urea and glucose sensing, respectively. The improvements are owing to Ti-doping, which produces a rougher sensing surface, a well-crystallized grain structure, and thinner silicate and SiO₂ at the silicon-oxide interface.