KickStat: A Coin-Sized Potentiostat for High-Resolution Electrochemical Analysis

Abstract

The demand for wearable and point-of-care devices has led to an increase in electrochemical sensor development to measure an ever-increasing array of biological molecules. In order to move from the benchtop to truly portable devices, the development of new biosensors requires miniaturized instrumentation capable of making highly sensitive amperometric measurements. To meet this demand, we have developed KickStat, a miniaturized potentiostat that combines the small size of the integrated Texas Instruments LMP91000 potentiostat chip (Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX, USA) with the processing power of the ARM Cortex-M0+ SAMD21 microcontroller (Microchip Technology, Chandler, AZ, USA) on a custom-designed 21.6 mm by 20.3 mm circuit board. By incorporating onboard signal processing via the SAMD21, we achieve 1 mV voltage increment resolution and an instrumental limit of detection of 4.5 nA in a coin-sized form factor. This elegant engineering solution allows for high-resolution electrochemical analysis without requiring extensive circuitry. We measured the faradaic current of an anti-cocaine aptamer using cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry and demonstrated that KickStat's response was within 0.6% of a high-end benchtop potentiostat. To further support others in electrochemical biosensors development, we have made KickStat's design and firmware available in an online GitHub repository.

Modern Electrode Technologies for Ion and Molecule Sensing

“…Additional studies on the amplification and interpretation of electrical signals should be undertaken in order to utilize the full potential of electrochemical techniques [ 75 ]. Further work in understanding selectivity, enzymes, and the development of bio-mimic molecules capable of replicating the selectivity of enzymes will be critical in the development of future sensing technology [ 13 , 54 , 58 , 76 ].…”

“…EC ion-detection is typically a low power technique and is relatively gentle on the environment as it generally involves low current and voltage values. Advancements in the miniaturization of the potentiostat, paired with its low-power requirement, mean that this technology can potentially be operated in remote places with limited resources [ 13 ]. EC methods for ion-detection are also desirable because the signal outputs of this technology, which are currents and voltages, interface well with modern electronics, computing, and signal processing techniques.…”

Development of Heavy Metal Potentiostat for Batik Industry

“…Here, the noise current measurement of the CMP was taken as the standard deviation of the data [22,30,31].…”

The multi-channel potentiostat: Development and evaluation of a scalable mini-potentiostat array for investigating electrochemical reaction mechanisms

“…Rowe et al [ 8 ] proposed a high-level circuit board design of a portable less expensive potentiostat (less than $200) that supports various electroanalysis methods (i.e., cyclic, square wave, linear sweep, and stripping voltammetry) over the voltage range of -0.99 to +0.99V. Friedman et al [ 27 ], Dryden et al [ 28 ], Cruz et al [ 9 ], Hoilett et al [ 29 ], and Adams et al [ 7 ] proposed similar devices with smaller form-factor. Dobbelaere et al [ 30 ] potentiostat design can reach up to 8V where most of the affordable solutions output a range less than 1 V. Commercial potentiostats [ 31 – 33 ] are not open source, significantly more expensive, and not all of them support multiple electrode setup (e.g., [ 31 ]).…”