A programmable electrochemical biosensor array in 0.18μm standard CMOS

Abstract

Biosensors use biological reactions to identify analytes such as DNA molecules, proteins or micro-organisms. These devices inti-mately couple a biological recognition element (the probe) with a physical transducer to generate an observable signal. The current trend toward creating massively parallel bio-recognition arrays and point-of-care molecular diagnostic systems introduces new technical challenges for the probes, transducers and their detec-tion apparatus. Today, a biosensor platform is required not only to be miniaturized and low cost, but also capable of specifically detecting multiple analytes in parallel. Electronic biosensors that utilize a combination of electrochemi-cal reactions and electronic sensing are promising candidates for the next generation of integrated biosensors. The basis for high expectations is their compatibility with most biological assays and the low cost of device fabrication. Demonstrating the advan-