Lab-on-CMOS: A Multi-modal CMOS Sensor
Platform towards Personalized DNA Sequencing
Yu Jiang
1
, Xu Liu
1
, Xiwei Huang
2
, Yang Shang
1
, Mei Yan
1
, Hao Yu
1
*
1
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798
2
Ministry of Education Key Lab of RF Circuits and Systems, Hangzhou Dianzi University, China 310018
*Email: haoyu@ntu.edu.sg
Abstract—Precision medicine requires scalable bio-
instrument for a personalized DNA sequencing, which can be
label-free, cost-efficient, and high-throughput. This paper
mainly presents three kinds of CMOS-based label-free sensors,
including: i) a high-sensitivity ion-sensitive field-effect
transistor (ISFET) sensor with pH-to-time-to-voltage
conversion (pH-TVC); ii) a dual-mode sensor with image and
chemical modes for high accuracy; and iii) a THz metamaterial
sensor with electrical resonance detection. The developed
CMOS multi-modal sensor platform can show a scaled solution
for future personalized DNA sequencing.
Keywords— personalized DNA sequencing; label-free
sensors; ISFET; metamaterial sensor; multi-modal
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
DNA detection, categorized as sequencing and
genotyping, plays a significant role for modern human
health. Sequencing, detection of the order of nucleotides in
DNA strands, enables studies of metagenomics, genetic
disorders, diseases, and genomic medicine. Genotyping,
targeted sequencing or mutation of specific DNA, is
deployed for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)
detections, most of which are associated with diseases and
deficiencies [1]. Sanger sequencing was successfully
employed in DNA detection since 1970s, which is expensive
and time-consuming for large-scale sequencing [2]. Next
generation sequencing technologies are later developed for
high-throughput sequencing with low cost, including
pyrosequencing (454), sequencing by oligo ligation detection
(SOLiD), and Illumina sequencing [3]. However, these
methods require fluorescent labels and bulky optical
instruments and hence are not feasible for personalized
diagnosis.
Large-array CMOS-compatible sensor foresees a strong
potential in the future personalized DNA sequencing. Same
as computer and communication devices, it follows the
Moore’s law that is scalable for millions of DNA strands to
be detected simultaneously on a single chip. State-of-the-art
methods include ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET)
based [4]-[6] and CMOS-compatible nanopore based [7].
This paper introduces the latest development of CMOS-
based multi-modal sensor platform for personalized DNA
sequencing, which includes: i) a high-sensitivity ISFET
sensor by pH-to-time-to-voltage conversion (pH-TVC); ii) a
dual-mode ion-image sensor with high accuracy; and iii) a
proposed THz metamaterial sensor.
II. CMOS
P
H-TVC
ISFET
S
ENSOR
For a CMOS ISFET device, an Ag/AgCl electrode in
solution works as a remote gate, and a floating gate (FG)
structure is formed between the passivation layer and gate
oxide, as shown in Fig. 1(a). In order to reduce fabrication
cost, passivation layer in standard CMOS process is utilized
as ion sensitive layer. However, this layer will introduce a
small capacitance C
pass
to the device model in Fig. 1(b),
which will capacitively decrease the coupling strength from
solution to ISFET [5]. Besides, in conventional testing
method shown in Fig. 1(c), ISFET works in saturation region
as a source-drain follower, and pH change in solution is
linearly corresponded to pixel output. As a result, pH
sensitivity is greatly affected by the passivation capacitance,
especially in larger sensor array with smaller sensing area.
To improve signal to noise ratio for better sequencing
performance, high-sensitivity ISFET sensor with pH-TVC
readout scheme is proposed, in which ISFET worked in
weak inversion region is adopted to exponentially improve
pH sensitivity.
A. pH-TVC Readout Scheme
To deal with the sensitivity attenuation effect, a pH-to-
time-to-voltage conversion scheme is proposed in Fig. 2.
Each pixel contains three transistors: MN
0
is the ISFET
device, MN
1
is the row-selected device, and MN
2
is the reset
device. At first stage, node N
1
is pre-charged to power
This work was supported by NRF-POC fund, NTU iFood fund fro