Central to the mechanism of detection with a sensor is the transduction of a signal associated with
selective recognition of biological or chemical species of interest. Nanostructured devices, comparable
in size to the biological and chemical species of interest, represent ideal transducers for enhancing signal
gain and detection sensitivity. In this paper, we report on the development of a nanostructured onedimensional
field effect transistor (1D FET) device on standard silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material with
enhanced sensitivity to environmental variables, such as moisture and selective ionic concentration as it
relates to corrosion processes. Semiconducting channels (p-doped silicon), on the order of 50–100 nm
in height and width and 2 µm in length, were fabricated using e-beam lithography with the remaining
FET features fabricated using standard semiconducting processes. The one dimensional channel
structure behaved as an FET device (i.e., with variation in the channel resistance upon application of a
current across the source to drain electrodes for a constant applied voltage at the gate electrode).