Sensors (Dec 2016)

CMOS Electrochemical Instrumentation for Biosensor Microsystems: A Review

  • Haitao Li,
  • Xiaowen Liu,
  • Lin Li,
  • Xiaoyi Mu,
  • Roman Genov,
  • Andrew J. Mason

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010074
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 1
p. 74

Abstract

Read online

Modern biosensors play a critical role in healthcare and have a quickly growing commercial market. Compared to traditional optical-based sensing, electrochemical biosensors are attractive due to superior performance in response time, cost, complexity and potential for miniaturization. To address the shortcomings of traditional benchtop electrochemical instruments, in recent years, many complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) instrumentation circuits have been reported for electrochemical biosensors. This paper provides a review and analysis of CMOS electrochemical instrumentation circuits. First, important concepts in electrochemical sensing are presented from an instrumentation point of view. Then, electrochemical instrumentation circuits are organized into functional classes, and reported CMOS circuits are reviewed and analyzed to illuminate design options and performance tradeoffs. Finally, recent trends and challenges toward on-CMOS sensor integration that could enable highly miniaturized electrochemical biosensor microsystems are discussed. The information in the paper can guide next generation electrochemical sensor design.

Keywords