Electrochemical method and resulting structures for attaching molecular and biomolecular structures to semiconductor micro and nanostructures

A method for manufacturing molecular probes on semiconductor nanostructures, the method comprising

• providing a plurality of nanowires structures, the plurality of nanowires structures comprising a semiconductor material, each of the nanowire structures comprising a surface region;
• forming a precursor layer overlying the surface region of each of the nanowire structures;
• immersing the plurality of nanowire structures in an fluid, the fluid being an electrolyte including a plurality of reactive molecules;
• selectively applying an electrical voltage to one or more of the nanowires from the plurality of nanowires to change a potential of the selected nanowire or nanowires;
• forming one or more reactive sites on a portion of the precursor layer on the surface region of the selected one or more nanowire structures from the plurality of nanowires structures;
• initiating one or more chemical bonds between one end of a electroactive molecules from a plurality of electroactive molecules on the portion of precursor layer to at least one of the reactive molecules through the fluid;
• and
• continuing to apply the reactive molecules to the surface region of the one or more selected nanowire structures.

A semiconductor based micro or nano probe device comprising:

• a semiconductor substrate;
• a plurality of nano or micro wires formed on the semiconductor substrate, each of the nano or micro wires having a contact region and a surface region;
• a substantially oxide free surface region on each of the plurality of nano or micro structures;
• a precursor formed overlying the substantially oxide free surface region on each of the plurality of nano or micro structures;
• at least a first state characterized from the precursor upon application of a first preselected electrical potential;
• at least a second state characterized from the precursor upon application of a second preselected electrical potential;
• a voltage source coupled to each of the contact regions on each of the plurality of nano or micro structures, the voltage source having an opposite polarity coupled to the surface region of each of the plurality of nano or micro structures;
• whereupon the voltage source selectively applies either the first preselected potential or the second preselected potential to one or more of the contact regions to change a state of the precursor from the first state to the second state.

A programmable semiconductor based molecular probe device, the device comprising:

• a semiconductor substrate;
• a plurality of nano or micro sized regions formed on the semiconductor substrate, whereupon the plurality of nano or micro sized regions being numbered from 1 to N, where N is an integer greater than 1;
• a precursor molecule formed on each of the plurality of nano or micro sized regions on the semiconductor substrate;
• one or more voltage sources coupled to each of the plurality of nano or micro sized regions on the semiconductor substrate;
• whereupon the one or more voltage sources selectively applies voltage to any one or more of the plurality of nano or micro sized regions to attract a selected electroactive molecule species to the one or more of the plurality of nano or micro sized regions.