Compact Low-Power Impedance-to-Digital Converter for Sensor Array Microsystems

With the rapid progress in CMOS compatible microfabrication of biosensors, there is an emerging need to miniaturize biosensor arrays onto the surface of silicon chips that acquire and process sensor data, permitting improved sensitivity, cost and throughput. In this paper, a low power circuit that e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of solid-state circuits 2009-10, Vol.44 (10), p.2844-2855
Main Authors: Chao Yang, Jadhav, S.R., Worden, R.M., Mason, A.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Arrays
Biological and medical sciences
Biosensor array
Biosensors
Biotechnology
Circuit properties
Circuits
CMOS
CMOS process
Costs
Counting circuits
Data mining
Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing
Digitization
Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits
electrochemical instrumentation
Electronic circuits
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hardware
Impedance
impedance spectroscopy
impedance-to-digital converter
Integrated circuits
Methods. Procedures. Technologies
Microelectronic fabrication (materials and surfaces technology)
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Sensor arrays
Sensors
Signal convertors
Silicon
Surface impedance
Throughput
Various methods and equipments
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Summary:With the rapid progress in CMOS compatible microfabrication of biosensors, there is an emerging need to miniaturize biosensor arrays onto the surface of silicon chips that acquire and process sensor data, permitting improved sensitivity, cost and throughput. In this paper, a low power circuit that extracts and digitizes sensor impedance information is presented. Composed of a novel multiplying integrator and a unique bidirectional counter/shifter, the circuit shares resources for impedance extraction and digitization to maximize hardware efficiency. The extremely compact size of the circuit enables the implementation of sensor array microsystems with simultaneous multi-channel readout. Fabricated in 0.5 mum CMOS, the circuit consumes 6 muW at 3 V and occupies only 0.06 mm 2 , permitting over 100 readout channels within a 3 times 3 mm die. Circuit performance has been verified with a biosensor for gramicidin ion channel embedded in a tethered bilayer lipid membrane.
ISSN:0018-9200
1558-173X
DOI:10.1109/JSSC.2009.2028054