CMOS based whole cell impedance sensing: Challenges and future outlook.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Biosensing Technologies

Background:

• Cell impedance sensing offers a label-free, non-invasive, and cost-effective alternative to traditional biochemical assays for studying living cells.
• The integration of cell impedance measurement into multi-analyte point-of-care diagnostic devices is driven by increasing healthcare demands.
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology enables miniaturized and integrated systems for cell impedance measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive review of cell impedance sensing techniques.
• To critically assess the theory, history, CMOS-based implementations, and applications of cell impedance sensing.
• To present and evaluate circuit topologies for whole cell impedance measurement using CMOS technology.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on cell impedance sensing (ECIS/EIS).
• Analysis of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit designs for cell impedance measurement.
• Comparison of different CMOS topologies based on classification, measurement speed, and sensitivity.

Main Results:

• Cell impedance sensing is a versatile technique applicable to biological, environmental, and food safety applications.
• Various CMOS circuit topologies exist for cell impedance measurement, each with distinct characteristics.
• The review categorizes and evaluates these topologies, highlighting their performance metrics.

Conclusions:

• CMOS-based cell impedance measurement systems are crucial for developing advanced point-of-care diagnostic devices.
• Further research into optimizing circuit topologies can enhance the speed and sensitivity of cell impedance sensing.
• The label-free and non-invasive nature of cell impedance sensing makes it a highly promising technology for future diagnostics.