Bio-inspired molecular communications (MC), where molecules are used to transfer information, is the most promising technique to realise the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT), thanks to its inherent biocompatibility, energy-efficiency, and reliability in physiologically-relevant environments. Despite a substantial body of theoretical work concerning MC, the lack of practical micro/nanoscale MC devices and MC testbeds has led researchers to make overly simplifying assumptions about the implications of the channel conditions and the physical architectures of the practical transceivers in developing theoretical models and devising communication methods for MC. On the other hand, MC imposes unique challenges resulting from the highly complex, nonlinear, time-varying channel properties that cannot be always tackled by conventional information and communication tools and technologies (ICT). As a result, the reliability of the existing MC methods, which are mostly adopted from electromagnetic communications and not validated with practical testbeds, is highly questionable. As the first step to remove this discrepancy, in this study, we report on the fabrication of a nanoscale MC receiver based on graphene field-effect transistor biosensors. We perform its ICT characterisation in a custom-designed microfluidic MC system with the information encoded into the concentration of single-stranded DNA molecules. This experimental platform is the first practical implementation of a micro/nanoscale MC system with nanoscale MC receivers, and can serve as a testbed for developing realistic MC methods and IoNT applications.

中文翻译：

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基于石墨烯的纳米级分子通信接收器：制造和微流体分析

生物启发分子通信 (MC)，其中分子用于传输信息，由于其固有的生物相容性、能源效率和在生理相关环境中的可靠性，是实现纳米物联网 (IoNT) 的最有前途的技术. 尽管有大量关于 MC 的理论工作，但由于缺乏实用的微/纳米级 MC 设备和 MC 测试平台，研究人员对信道条件和实际收发器物理架构的影响做出了过于简化的假设，以开发理论模型和为 MC 设计通信方法。另一方面，MC 带来了高度复杂、非线性、时变的信道特性不能总是通过传统的信息和通信工具和技术 (ICT) 来解决。因此，现有的 MC 方法的可靠性非常值得怀疑，这些方法主要从电磁通信中采用并且未经实际测试台验证。作为消除这种差异的第一步，在本研究中，我们报告了基于石墨烯场效应晶体管生物传感器的纳米级 MC 接收器的制造。我们在定制设计的微流体 MC 系统中执行其 ICT 表征，并将信息编码到单链 DNA 分子的浓度中。该实验平台是具有纳米级 MC 接收器的微/纳米级 MC 系统的第一个实际实现，