Demonstration of CMOS-compatible memristor-based electrochemical biosensor transducer with threshold-sensing...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Electrochemical biosensors often use threshold-sensing (TS) for disease detection.
• Traditional TS implementation requires power-hungry signal processing (SP) modules, increasing energy use and system complexity.
• There is a need for integrated, low-power TS solutions in biosensors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate a memristor-based bio-to-electrical transducer with integrated TS functionality.
• To reduce the energy consumption and complexity of electrochemical biosensor systems.
• To enable efficient point-of-care diagnostics.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of resistive random-access memory (RRAM) memristors using TaO_X/Ta₂O₅.
• Characterization of memristor properties, including on/off ratio and pulse width.
• Integration of the memristor transducer into a complete electrochemical biosensor system for pH sensing.
• Experimental validation of the memristor's resistance change for TS functionality.

Main Results:

• TaO_X/Ta₂O₅ memristors achieved a high on/off ratio (>30) and long unit pulse width (>10 μs).
• The memristor demonstrated a clear resistance state change (high to low) confirming TS operation.
• A complete pH sensing biosensor system was successfully implemented using the memristor transducer.
• The system showed flexible control of the threshold pH point via simple design modifications.

Conclusions:

• The proposed memristor-based transducer effectively integrates TS functionality directly into the biosensor.
• This approach significantly reduces reliance on external SP modules, lowering power consumption and system complexity.
• The developed memristor biosensor is well-suited for portable point-of-care diagnostic applications.