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Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Jülich Campus, Institute of Nano- and Biotechnologies (INB), Ginsterweg 1, 52428 Jülich, Germany ; Research Centre Jülich, Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems (IBN-2), 52428 Jülich, Germany

Physics ; Microbiology ; Electronic and magnetic devices; microelectronics

Chalcogenide glass materials as membranes for potentiometric sensors for chemical analysis in solutions have been extensively studied in the past. Ion-selective electrodes with chalcogenide glass membranes dealt with the ion-sensing properties of this class of materials, followed by systematic investigations of their solid-state chemistry, the sensing mechanism and their analytical characteristics [1]. Recently, the analytical performance of chalcogenide glass membranes has been combined with techniques originally invented for semiconductor processing, in order to create a new generation of silicon-based sensors with chalcogenide glass thin films for heavy metal detection. For these modern and miniaturized sensor devices, however, it is necessary to prepare the sensitive material in a fast and cost-effective way. This especially becomes very interesting in terms of multi-sensor systems for the simultaneous measurement of different ions in solutions. Based on conventional chalcogenide glass bulk electrode materials, the authors have introduced the pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) process for the fabrication of complex chalcogenide glass materials in the thin-film state [2-11] . Miniaturized ion-selective electrodes (µISE), sensor array structures and field-effect structures such as the electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) sensor, the light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) and the ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) are selected as transducer materials for the readout of the sensor signal. The results for different chalcogenide glass materials together with different transducer structures will be presented.