Francisco López-Huerta, Rosa María Woo-Garcia, Miguel Lara-Castro, Johan Jair Estrada-López, Agustín Leobardo Herrera-May
Faculty of Electronics Sciences, Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
Faculty of Mathematics, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico.
Research Center for Micro and Nanotechnology, University of Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico.
DOI: 10.4236/jst.2013.33010   PDF    HTML     4,845 Downloads   9,107 Views   Citations

Abstract

We present the design and integration of a nine-pH microsensor array on a single silicon substrate with its own signal readout circuit, integrated in a 0.6-μm commercial standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. An ion sensitive field effect transistor (ISFET) has been used as pH microsensor and an instrumentation amplifier as the read-out circuit. The ISFET structure is conformed by the channel length and ratio of MOS transistor, gate extended and the selective membrane, for which silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) is employed as an ion selective element. The complete design includes shielding around the pH microsensor and the readout circuit to avoid leakage of current to the substrate. The readout circuit is composed by three operational amplifiers and resistances that form the instrumentation amplifier, with a ±2.5 V bias has a 50 dB gain, power supply rejection ratio (PSSR) of 120 dB and common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 127 dB. The complete system is integrated in a 1.12 mm² silicon area; it presents a 59 mV/pH linearity, within a concentration range of 2 to 12 of pH level, making it a good alternative for biological or medical applications.

Keywords

CMOS; Instrumentation Amplifier; ISFET; pH

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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