Fluorescence Imaging (FI) is a powerful technique in biological science and clinical medicine. Current FI devices that are used either for in-vivo or in-vitro studies are expensive, bulky and consume substantial power, confining the technique to laboratories and hospital examination rooms. Here we present a miniaturised wireless fluorescence endoscope capsule with low power consumption that will pave the way for future FI systems and applications. With enhanced sensitivity compared to existing technology we have demonstrated that the capsule can be successfully used to image tissue autofluorescence and targeted fluorescence via fluorophore labelling of tissues. The capsule incorporates a state-of-the-art complementary metal oxide semiconductor single photon avalanche detector imaging array, miniaturised optical isolation, wireless technology and low power design. When in use the capsule consumes only 30.9 mW, and deploys very low-level 468 nm illumination. The device has the potential to replace highly power-hungry intrusive optical fibre based endoscopes and to extend the range of clinical examination below the duodenum. To demonstrate the performance of our capsule, we imaged fluorescence phantoms incorporating principal tissue fluorophores (flavins) and absorbers (haemoglobin). We also demonstrated the utility of marker identification by imaging a 20 μM fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labelling solution on mammalian tissue.
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has made personal mobile computing and communications an everyday part of life. In this paper we present a nanophotonic integrated CMOS-based biosensor that will pave the way for future personalized medical diagnostics. To achieve our aim, we have monolithically integrated plasmonic nanostructures with a CMOS photodiode. Following this approach of monolithic nanophotonics–microelectronics integration, we have successfully developed a miniaturized nanophotonic sensor system with direct electrical readout, which eliminates the need of bulky and costly equipment that is presently used for interrogation of nanophotonic sensors. The optical sensitivity of the plasmonic nanostructures is measured to be 275 nm/refractive index unit (RIU), which translates to an electrical sensitivity of 5.8 V/RIU in our integrated sensor system. This advance is the first demonstration of monolithic integration of nanophotonic structures with CMOS detectors and is a crucial step toward translating laboratory based nanophotonic sensing systems to portable, low-cost, and digital formats.
Precision metabolomics and quantification for costeffective, rapid diagnosis of disease are key goals in personalized medicine and point-of-care testing. Presently, patients are subjected to multiple test procedures requiring large laboratory equipment. Microelectronics has already made modern computing and communications possible by integration of complex functions within a single chip. As More than Moore technology increases in importance, integrated circuits for densely patterned sensor chips have grown in significance. Here, we present a versatile single CMOS chip forming a platform to address personalized needs through on-chip multimodal optical and electrochemical detection that will reduce the number of tests that patients must take. The chip integrates interleaved sensing subsystems for quadruplemode colorimetric, chemiluminescent, surface plasmon resonance and hydrogen ion measurements. These subsystems include a photodiode array and a single photon avalanche diode array, with some elements functionalized to introduce a surface plasmon resonance mode. The chip also includes an array of ion sensitive field effect transistors. The sensor arrays are distributed uniformly over an active area on the chip surface in a scalable and modular design. Bio-functionalization of the physical sensors yields a highly selective simultaneous multiple-assay platform in a disposable format. We demonstrate its versatile capabilities through quantified bioassays performed on-chip for glucose, cholesterol, urea and urate, each within their naturally occurring physiological range.
Elevated cholesterol levels are associated with a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other illnesses, making it a prime candidate for detection on a disposable biosensor for rapid point of care diagnostics. One of the methods to quantify cholesterol levels in human blood serum uses an optically mediated enzyme assay and a bench top spectrophotometer. The bulkiness and power hungry nature of the equipment limits its usage to laboratories. Here, we present a new disposable sensing platform that is based on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor process for total cholesterol quantification in pure blood serum. The platform that we implemented comprises readily mass-manufacturable components that exploit the colorimetric changes of cholesterol oxidase and cholesterol esterase reactions. We have shown that our quantification results are comparable to that obtained by a bench top spectrophotometer. Using the implemented device, we have measured cholesterol concentration in human blood serum as low as 29 µM with a limit of detection at 13 µM, which is approximately 400 times lower than average physiological range, implying that our device also has the potential to be used for applications that require greater sensitivity.
Abstract-Current clinical standards for endoscopy in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract combine high definition optics and ultrasound imaging to view the lumen superficially and through its thickness. However, these instruments are limited to the length of an endoscope and the only clinically available, autonomous devices able to travel the full length of the GI tract easily offer only video capsule endoscopy (VCE). Our work seeks to overcome this limitation with a device ("Sonopill") for multimodal capsule endoscopy, providing optical and microultrasound (µUS) imaging and supporting sensors 1 . µUS transducers have been developed with multiple piezoelectric materials operating across a range of centre frequencies to study viability in the GI tract. Because of the combined constraints of µUS imaging and the low power / heat tolerance of autonomous devices, a hybrid approach has been taken to the transducer design, with separate transmit and receive arrays allowing multiple manufacturing approaches to maximise system efficiency. To explore these approaches fully, prototype devices have been developed with PVDF, highfrequency PZT and PMN-PT composites, and piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays. Test capsules have been developed using 3D printing to investigate issues including power consumption, heat generation / dissipation, acoustic coupling, signal strength and capsule integrity. Because of the high functional density of the electronics in our proposed system, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) have been developed to realise the ultrasound transmit and receive circuitry along with white-light and autofluorescence imaging with singlephoton avalanche detectors (SPADs).The ultrasound ASIC has been developed and the SPAD electronics and optical subsystem have been validated experimentally. The functionality of various transducer materials
Abstract-We have created a novel chip-based diagnostic tools based upon quantification of metabolites using enzymes specific for their chemical conversion. Using this device we show for the first time that a solid-state circuit can be used to measure enzyme kinetics and calculate the Michaelis-Menten constant. Substrate concentration dependency of enzyme reaction rates is central to this aim. Ion-sensitive field effect transistors (ISFET) are excellent transducers for biosensing applications that are reliant upon enzyme assays, especially since they can be fabricated using mainstream microelectronics technology to ensure low unit cost, mass-manufacture, scaling to make many sensors and straightforward miniaturisation for use in point-of-care devices. Here, we describe an integrated ISFET array comprising 2 16 sensors. The device was fabricated with a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. Unlike traditional CMOS ISFET sensors that use the Si 3 N 4 passivation of the foundry for ion detection, the device reported here was processed with a layer of Ta 2 O 5 that increased the detection sensitivity to 45 mV/pH unit at the sensor readout. The drift was reduced to 0.8 mV/hour with a linear pH response between pH 2 -12. A high-speed instrumentation system capable of acquiring nearly 500 fps was developed to stream out the data. The device was then used to measure glucose concentration through the activity of hexokinase in the range of 0.05 mM -231 mM, encompassing glucose's physiological range in blood. Localised and temporal enzyme kinetics of hexokinase was studied in detail. These results present a roadmap towards a viable personal metabolome machine. Index Terms-Biosensor, CMOS, electrochemical sensor, enzyme kinetics, hexokinase, ion-sensitive field effect transistors (ISFET), metabolomics, point-of-care (POC) diagnostics.
There is a requirement for an electrochemical sensor technology capable of making multivariate measurements in environmental, healthcare, and manufacturing applications. Here, we present a new device that is highly parallelized with an excellent bandwidth. For the first time, electrochemical cross-talk for a chip-based sensor is defined and characterized. The new CMOS electrochemical sensor chip is capable of simultaneously taking multiple, independent electroanalytical measurements. The chip is structured as an electrochemical cell microarray, comprised of a microelectrode array connected to embedded self-contained potentiostats. Speed and sensitivity are essential in dynamic variable electrochemical systems. Owing to the parallel function of the system, rapid data collection is possible while maintaining an appropriately low-scan rate. By performing multiple, simultaneous cyclic voltammetry scans in each of the electrochemical cells on the chip surface, we are able to show (with a cell-to-cell pitch of 456 µm) that the signal cross-talk is only 12% between nearest neighbors in a ferrocene rich solution. The system opens up the possibility to use multiple independently controlled electrochemical sensors on a single chip for applications in DNA sensing, medical diagnostics, environmental sensing, the food industry, neuronal sensing, and drug discovery.
The measurement of nanophotonic sensors currently requires the use of external measuring equipment for their read-out such as an optical spectrum analyzer, spectrophotometer, or detectors. This requirement of external laboratory-based measuring equipment creates a "chip-in-a-lab" dilemma and hinders the use of nanophotonic sensors in practical applications. Making nanophotonic sensors usable in everyday life requires miniaturization of not only the sensor chip itself but also the equipment used for its measurement. In this paper, we have removed the need of external measuring equipment by monolithically integrating 1-D grating structures with a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit having an array of photodiodes. By doing so, we get a direct electrical read-out of the refractive index changes induced when applying different analytes to grating structures. The gratings are made of CMOS compatible silicon nitride. Employing a nanophotonic sensor made of CMOS compatible material allows fabrication of the integrated sensor chip in a commercial CMOS foundry, enabling mass production for commercialization with low cost. Our results present a significant step toward transforming present laboratory-based nanophotonic sensors into practical portable devices to enable applications away from the analytical laboratory. We anticipate the work will have a major impact on technology for personalized medicine, environmental, and industrial sensing.
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