A CMOS wireless biomolecular sensing system-on-chip based on polysilicon nanowire technology

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Integrated Circuits

Background:

• On-field and personalized disease diagnosis is crucial for modern healthcare.
• Traditional biosensing systems often lack integration and portability.
• Advancements in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology offer potential for integrated biosensor development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate a polysilicon nanowire (poly-Si NW) based biosensor system-on-chip (bio-SSoC).
• To integrate the poly-Si NW biosensor with analog-front-end (AFE), analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and microcontroller for enhanced sensing.
• To develop a wireless bio-SSoC for label-free, low-concentration biomolecular detection.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a poly-Si NW bio-SSoC using a 0.35 μm 2-Poly-4-Metal (2P4M) CMOS process.
• Integration of a chopper differential-difference amplifier (DDA) based AFE and a successive approximation ADC.
• Incorporation of a microcontroller and an on-off key (OOK) wireless transceiver.

Main Results:

• Experimental validation of label-free detection for Hepatitis B Virus DNA at 10 fM concentration.
• Experimental validation of label-free detection for cardiac troponin I protein at 3.2 pM concentration.
• Demonstration of good biomolecular sensing characteristics by the wireless bio-SSoC.

Conclusions:

• The developed wireless bio-SSoC harnesses CMOS integrated technology for advanced bio-diagnosis.
• This technology shows potential for low-cost, mobile, and on-field personalized biomedical diagnosis.
• The integrated system represents a promising candidate for future healthcare applications.