A fully integrated CMOS bio-chip aiming at selective assembly of charged nano-particles

A fully integrated bio-chip targeting at electrical selective assembly of charged nano-particles is proposed and designed in SMIC 0.18 μm CMOS mixed signal process. The proposed circuit integrates the electrode array, potentiostat circuit, and logics on a single chip, and provides a rail-to-rail range of assembly voltage, a potential resolution of 9 bit, and a maximal assembly current up to 0.46 mA, biased at a current of 1 μA. Meanwhile, a novel electrode-reuse scheme is also proposed to further simplify the architecture and save chip area as well, without degrading the functionalities. Experimental results from on-chip selective assembly of 50 nm poly-styrene nano-particles (PS) are included and discussed to verify the feasibility of the proposed circuits.